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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 



AND 



Logic of the Scriptures; 



OR 



MARRIAGE OF THEOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY. 



Copyright, 1889, By Benjamin Casey. 



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ALL RIGHT'S 'RESERVED, 









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IN THIRTEEN CHAPTERS, 



TO WHICH IS ADDED A CRITICAL EXAMINATION OF 
ALL DISPUTED PARTS OF THE BIBLE, SHOWING THE 
PERFECT AGREEMENT OF THEOLOGY AND 
PHILOSOPHY IN ALL OF THE SCRIPTURE. 



What, therefore, God hath joined together. Jet not man put 
asunder.— Matthew xix :6. 



DES MOINES: 

IOWA PRINTING COMPANY, 

1890. 



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C3 



PREFACE. 



Is there a logical solution shown for the mysteries 
of nature, by the church or the world, either with 
or without the Bible? For, those who do not ac- 
knowledge the bible, do not, cannot, show any 
solution of the mysteries of nature. And the ortho- 
dox world with the Bible in hand has accepted 
interpretations that show collisions and disputes, and 
inexplicable passages; and seems to assume that it 
is the strength and dignity of the Bible to be so high 
and so deep that the human intellect can never com- 
prehend its vastness. But if the Bible does show 
clear logical reason, and harmony in itself, and in all 
nature with it, then those that have the Bible and 
profess to believe it, and still will concede the point 
that the Bible is dark and mysterious, such should 
search with becoming vigilance until the clearest solu- 
tion is found for the existence of all things in nature, 
in the light of Bible teaching. But the very eminent 
minister of the cross will approach those passages 
that are called dark, and as if by immovable fate, they 
close the door of investigation against the human race. 
They say do not bring hypothesis on this sacred 
ground; we can only receive a u Thus saith the Lord 



4 PREFACE. 

when you presume to step on this undisputed ground 
for investigation." But divest the mind of prejudice 
and scrutinize closely any and all theology that does 
concede the charge of mystery and darkness in the Bi- 
ble to be true; and it cannot be denied that all such 
theology rests on hypothesis, because there are many 
passages of the Bible correctly inserted in their theo- 
ries, and these passages were selected according to 
the ideas of those who selected them. Again, those 
passages in the absence of other passages seem to 
contain the idea that the writer was trying to prove. 
But they do not furnish a "Thus saith the Lord" for 
the religious tenet they wish to establish, but on 
hypothesis, purely and only, they declare their theol- 
ogy proven by the scripture. 

But in the following pages the object will be to 
show that the authorized version, or the King James 
translation of the Bible is perfectly clear, and with- 
out collision or self dispute, or mysteries or darkness, 
but is perfectly philosophical in all its parts, and we 
venture on hypothesis less than any theology we have 
seen or read. I could not expect to produce any 
treatise on such a subject without the use of some 
words or ideas that a reader might regard as being 
hypothetical. Neither do I expect to show even so 
small a volume, without many detectable mistakes. 
But I claim at the hand of every honest reader of 
these pages, that if you cannot condemn the ideas ad- 



PREFACE. 5 

vanced, but are convinced that the object of the writer 
is reached, that you will not stiike at it because of its 
imperfect, manner of appearance. But if you are a 
scholar, or a writer, or a thinker, come up to the help 
of the truth, and bring this subject out plain as noon- 
day sun, and lift the Bible and its author out of the 
slander it has lain under so long before the world, 
and the church, also. And take from the infidels 
their weapon of power by which they have trampled 
down the Bible, and the truth, and the hope of the 
world, and the light of the world, and have by that 
very means held Christianity in the back ground; and 
turned millions of inquiring hearts away from the 
source and hope of life. 

For the highness, the richness, the glory, and the 
splendor can be seen only when the Bible is clearly 
understood, without mystery or darkness, or appear- 
ance of self contradiction. The Author. 



INTRODUCTION. 



The stronghold of infidelity against the Bible, and 
against Christianity is that they charge the whole 
revelation with lack of reason, logic, philosophy and 
harmony within itself: 

1. They say there is no trustworthy evidence of a 
God only in the Bible, and that they dispute. But 
that is treated in chapter 1, first part. 

2. They say that the doctrine of the atonement 
is perfectly insupportable, being neither philosophi- 
cal, nor logical, nor reasonable, and is a violation of 
justice and truth, love and mercy. The atonement is 
treated in the first chapter. 

3. They say that geological testimony proves the 
bible account of creation to be untrue. But creation 
is treated in chapter 2 of this writing, and in chapter 
3 on formation. 

4. They say the origin of sin involves unsolvable 
difi&cultv, and the church does not meet them on that- 
But that is treated in chapter 4. 

5. Fall of angels and men is not reconcilable with 
the perfect character that is ascribed to the God of 
the Bible. But see chapter 5 of this writing. 

6 They say that if a God of infinite power and 



8 INTRODUCTION. 

wisdom did create this earth, and does over-rule all 
its inhabitants, then he must be the author of all that 
is done by all his creatures, and is responsible for all 
the consequences of sin, and misery, and death, both 
temporal and eternal. But see warfare in chapter 6, 
and also treated in chapters 4 and 5. 

7. Types of the old testament. They say that 
the flood, and the universal destruction in wars of 
human life is not in harmony with infinite goodness 
But these were necessities in nature and are treated 
of in chapter 7. 

8. They say that the doctrine of human salvation 
by faith is wholly insupportable and is the sacrifice 
of justice and truth. But see chapter 8. 

9. They say the Bible doctrine of future reward and 
punishment is the sacrifice of justice and truth, love 
and mercy. But see chapter 9 on the philosophical 
necessity of the doctrines, based on cause and effect. 

10. They say there is no evidence of the divine 
authenticity of the scriptures, neither that it is the 
genuine work, as was first given to the world. This 
is treated in chapter 11. 

Chapter 10 treats of the possible design of reve- 
lation. Chapter 12 treats of the translation of A. D. 
1611. These are the main points on which the infi- 
del holds the appearance of success against the Bible. 
But out of them grows multitudes of objections of 
much smaller consequence and inferior importance. 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

And they boldly and defiantly challenge the world 
and the church to show reason or logic on these 
special points, and if these ten or twelve main points 
of Bible teaching cannot be shown to be logically 
reasonable by the church, and the advocates of the 
Bible, then it is claimed that whatever grows out of 
these leading passages has as strong claim to truth as 
the leading passages they grow out of. 

They further say that the most profound critics, 
and thinkers, and writers all agree that the best in- 
terpretations of the scriptures do involve these collis- 
ions, these irreconcilable passages, and that it is im- 
possible to show reason in them, either with or with- 
out the aid of the Bible, or by any possible argument 
that can be brought, none can show logical truth in 
the Bible at these points of apparent contradiction. 
And the minister that finds more interest in the 
sumptuous feast, with the sprightly company than he 
finds in searching out the depths of the word of life, 
these are apt to say "Do not bring any argument in 
defense, of such a cause, except it is supported by a 
l Thus saith the Lord/ So then argument is barred 
by the Christians and defied by the infidel. 

But if there is argument brought, either from reve- 
lation or from nature,or from both, that will show these 
several topics to be in harmony with themselves and 
with all nature, then the infidel is answered. But if 
another interpretation of the Bible is shown that is 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

based on the clearest philosophy , but holds the entire 
scripture in perfect harmony, and that it is true on 
the ground of natural necessity, and clears up every 
objection that was ever, or can ever be brought against 
the Bible, then the objecting Christian should feel 
answered, and the Bible should be regarded a philo- 
sophical book. 

The object of this writing is to defend all parts of 
the scripture in the light of the clearest philosophy, 
without dispute or difficulty in any part of it. 

B. C. 



CHAPTER I. 

Philosophy Demonstrates the God of the Bible 
by the Laws of Nature. — His Attributes 
Security for all Created Things. — Necessity 
for Attonement Before Creation. — Testimony 

■ Natural and Scriptural. 

In order to show a logical solution of the mvs- 
teries of nature there must be information brought 
from some source bevond nature itself, for it is 
clear that nature alone does not solve the mystery. 

But can the book of Revelation show philoso- 
phical reason for all things in clear harmony with 
all nature? Can the Grod of the Bible be demon- 
strated by the testimony of nature, independent 
of the Bible? If it can be so . done, then the 
Bible mav be considered reliable. Now, when we 
see many things in nature which are absolutely 
necessary to human life, as well as all animal life, 
which are not produced by visible power, but design 
meets necessity perfectly, that proves a designer. 
And if the learning and talent of man utterly fail 
to show the first principles of such design, or its 
origin; when it is further shown that the Bible 
account is in perfect harmony with all nature, and 



12 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

will clear up all mysteries in nature, then the God 
of the Bible is demonstrated in the light of the 
clearest philosophy. But if it is said that the mys- 
teries of nature are produced, or brought about by 
the laws of nature, the answer is that such is the 
design of the laws of nature to govern the material 
world. And it is so filled with natural and intelli- 
gent design that so perfectly meets natural necessity 
that it is impossible for honest inquiry to fail to see 
the indisputable evidence of a designer. And when 
very many things are seen that are not necessary to 
life, but of great convenience, in which design and 
necessity meet perfectly, the evidence of a designer 
is still more abundant. And when all nature, apart 
from Revelation, utterly fails to find the origin of 
these designs, and there cannot be an effect without 
a cause, then can philosophy be stronger, or more 
perfectly clear in anything than is shown for the God 
of the Bible? Hence the absurdity of the idea that 
the laws of nature exist without a designer; and 
effects so filled with design exist without a cause, or 
intelligent designer, although men of great power of 
mind have adopted those ideas, and no marvel, be- 
cause such do not make the subject their study. But 
when the objection is overcome in the hands of great 
men, then the truth will be indisputably proven. 

If the great of the earth did not defend the wrong, 
then the wrong could not be perfectly overcome and 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 13 

the world would fail of its mission. But the wrong 
must be overcome in the hands of the strongest men 
that choose to take hold of it. 

But notice some of the evidences that nature bears 
to the existence of the God of the Bible, in such 
things as are necessary to life, and their perfect fit- 
ness to supply the demands, and their comforts and 
bliss to animal life, and wherein necessity, intelli- 
gence and design are fully developed in the same 
thing. Think of the folly of doubting a designer? 

1. The breath of life, or atmosphere. Deprive 
animal life of air, and one hour would extinguish all 
animal life. But man is a necessity in nature very 
far beyond anything that is in himself, and the in- 
telligent design of air for his support is perfect, and 
for the support of all animal life for man's sake 
directly and indirectly. 

2. Water. All animal life must perish of thirst 
if water could not .be obtained. But how it abounds 
in the earth, and no man can estimate its value as a 
comfort, a blessing. 

3. Food. Who can produce food, even if the 
world were perishing for want of it? Not one, save 
the Almighty only, and yet men live. 

4. Fire. How necessary to life, and vastly more 
so for comfort and convenience. Man can produce 
the fire if he has the material, but fire, as a principle 
in nature, belongs to the Divine only. 



14 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

5. Rain-fall to make the earth produce. Life 
depends on rain-fall as really as on breath. But that 
also belongs to the Divine only. 

6. Growth of animals and vegetables without 
which life must soon become extinguished. But the 
laws of growth are with the Almighty only. 

7. Sleep, as necessary to life as food or drink. 
But it is of the Lord. 

8. The power of sight. 

9. The power to hear. 

10. The law of life, vegetable or animal. 

None of these can be accounted for only as they 
are solved in the God of the Bible; but the Bible is 
the most logically reasonable solution of all the mys- 
teries of nature that can be given for anything. 

But beside all these there is much more that enters 
into the necessities of life. 

11. For if life is sustained it is by power of 
motion which is a separate gift. 

12. Intelligence, or power of thought, separate. 

13. Law of attraction on which not only animal 
life depends, but also the existence of the planets. 
Tide or ebb and flow of the sea. The rain-fall is in 
the right direction. The magnet attracts the needle- 
But to mention a few more without comment. 

14. Electricity ought to be classed with the others. 

15. Steam. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 15 

16. Nitroglycerine, and all manner of poisons 
and very much more powder, and all explosives. 

And when these are all considered there still re- 
mains a question in everything in nature, that the 
eye beholds, which cannot be answered only as the 
Bible finds the answer. All bear testimony to the 
God of the Bible. Now, in the nature of things, it 
is impossible to prove anything so strong as the testi- 
mony of nature proves the existence of the God of 
the Bible, and that evidence establishes the fact that 
the Bible account of him is true. 

And although these topics are all familiar and are 
the topics of common conversation, yet when they 
are brought into such connection as this, who can 
turn its force aside, seeing it is logical? And more 
especially, when the philosopher has sought so long 
in vain to find a reasonable solution of nature's mys- 
teries apart from the Bible. Philosophy brings 
cause and effect for the explanation of nature. All 
good. All possible argument from'cause and effect 
will establish the Bible if the argument finds its 
right place. But the very law of cause and effect, 
the boasted weapon of infidelity, will utterly destroy 
its cause, seeing that cause and effect cannot reach to 
the bottom of anything in nature independent of 
the Bible. 

Do not these arguments demonstrate the God of 
the Bible from the book of nature alone, indepen- 



16 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

dently of the Bible? And when the God of the 
Bible is proven by the immovable testimony that 
nature alone furnishes, independently of the Bible, 
then is the Bible His word and His work, and then 
is the Bible itself the philosophical demonstration 
that it is of divine origin. Then the entire trans- 
lation of 1611 is seen to be right just as it is, nothing 
added, nothing diminished. 

And here let two propositions be laid down, never 
to be moved, and nothing admitted into theology 
that is not in the clearest harmony with both. 
The first one is the God of the Bible cannot do 
wrong, nor do evil, nor in any way cause them 
to be done, but can and does overrule them. The 
second one is that the origin of all evil, and all 
wrong is a self existent principle in nature that is 
the opposite of, the antagonist of all that enters 
into the divine character, and is the enemv of the 
universe. Hence, the intelligent agent is not the 
origin of sin, but he is the willing dupe of the 
great monster, Wrong, a principle in nature not a 
person. Herein is the reason why there is a wicked 
world, because in it is the vast warfare in which this 
enemy of universal nature must be overcome in all 
its bearings. This planet exists expressly for that 
purpose, and the war must go on until that work is 
completed. All the human race do choose their army 
to fight in, and all must abide the consequence of 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 17 

their choice. Then why is a miracle not as logical 
when done by divine authority as if a strong man 
would perform an act that his little child could not 
perform? The Bible must be successfully disproved 
before it is rational to deny the logic of a miracle 
that is attributed to the Almighty. 

This whole subject must be considered in the light 
of the Bible only, but not in the light of popular 
theology, and no hypothesis admitted that will not 
show the most infinite perfection in the divine char- 
acter, in all its attributes. For righteousness and 
justice require that when rational, intelligent agents 
are created who are capacitated to suffer or to enjoy, 
that the power that created them should provide 
ample security for their reasonable chance to attain 
to a state of bliss and happiness. This security is 
found in the perfection of the divine attributes, of 
which there are in Scripture seven spoken of each one 
independent of itself, the seven spirits of God, so 
called in Rev., 1: iv, and 3: i, and 4: v, and 5: vi. 
These were typified by the seven lamps always burn- 
ing in the tabernacle day and night. The lamps burn 
before the throne. They are sent forth into all the 
earth. These seven attributes, or eternal principles 
in nature, and spirits of God are the foundation, the 
security of all things that are created, whether planet 
or agent. They are the security of all life, whether 
angels or men. Hence, in the construction of any 
2 



18 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

theological baste, these seven spirits, these seven 
lamps, these seven essential attributes, must be main- 
tained in their infinite perfection. To mar one of 
these attributes would sacrifice God head. It would 
undeify self-existent Deity, and there could be no 
perfection remaining in the universe. And as the 
fact is plain that nothing less than perfect purity, 
and infinity dwelling in every attribute, can create, 
then to render one of these imperfect would have 
been essentially to bar creation everlastingly. So let 
nothing be admitted into theology that will not leave 
these attributes perfectly clear. These seven are 
Truth, Love, Power, Wisdom, Justice, Mercy and 
Immutability. These are productive of all righteous- 
ness and all good, but cannot produce wrong or evils, 
though they have power to restrain and control any 
and all evil and all wrong. But what relation does 
the atonement sustain to these attributes? For the 
scripture shows that the atonement was foreordained 
before the foundation of the world. I Peter, 1: xx. 
And in still stronger terms in Mi., 5: ii — "He should 
come forth out of Bethlehem that should be ruler in 
Israel whose goings forth have been from of old, 
from everlasting. 1 ' And Eph., 3: xi says: "Accord- 
ing to the eternal purpose which he purposed in 
Christ Jesus, our Lord." These two passages put the 
atoner and his work back to the everlasting and to 
the eternal. Col., 1: xv, xvi, xvii, says: "All things 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 19 

were created by Him, and He is before all things, and 
by Him all things consist.' 1 The atonement was in 
force as far back as the name of the Atoner is found, 
and the atonement was virtually as effective when it 
was decreed by divine authority as it is to-day. It 
was in full force in all its bearings before creation 
did or could commence. Then, and not till then, 
could the Atoner create planets and agents. 

But why would, or how could, Goodness and Right- 
eousness decree that His beloved and only son should 
fill the place that He did fill in this world to atone 
for sin when there was not a sin, nor a sinner, in 
existence? 

This is the difficulty that bothers the world, and 
the church, and holds the Bible in such indefensible 
weakness. 

But if these spirits of God are each of them a vir- 
tue, then of necessity each one must have its oppo- 
site in principle, which, when developed, is a vice; 
otherwise there could be no virtue. But the opposite 
of truth is falsehood; of love is malice; of power is 
weakness; of wisdom is ignorance; of justice is in- 
justice or wrong; of mercy is cruelty; and of immut- 
ability is vacillation. These were the natural antag- 
onists of the divine character, but only as principles 
in nature, and could not be developed until some 
created agents would exist that they could act upon. 
But Wisdom saw this enemy, this antagonistic prin- 



20 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

ciple in nature, like the principle of fire that is not 
developed, but the principle is everywhere. One is a 
good figure of the other. And Wisdom saw the 
enemy ready to assail anything that could be created, 
and his own perfect nature made it impossible to 
create agents and expose them to that enemy until 
that enemy was brought under control, and its power 
virtuallv annihilated. 

Here impossibilities seemed to meet, for the enemy 
could not be overcome without creature agents, and 
creature agents could not be exposed to that enemy's 
contamination until the power of that enemy was 
brought under divine control to the extent that the 
agents could, if they would, resist the tempter. This 
condition of things left but one possibility in nature, 
and that was that self-existent Deity should go in 
debt for all the expenses of a war sufficiently vast to 
overcome this enemy, and bring its power to a close 
forever. Hence, the divine decree that a body should 
be prepared for Him to wear to make atonement for 
sin, and a race of beings prepared for soldiers, and 
suffered to be fallen passively, but all redeemed, and 
that mercy should be offered to all alike, and that 
with the end of this world the work of the enemy 
should be destroyed forever, and the enemy and all 
his servants should be confined to a safe prison limit 
everlastingly. 

Now, put those seven virtues together and treat 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 21 

them under the head, or word, Right, and also con- 
sider the seven vices together and call them Wrong, 
narrowing the question down to a single word for 
each side, namely, Right and Wrong. For these 
seven all enter into the principle of wrong. 

Now, if the wrong was as accessible as the right 
and as readily reached from any place that a spirit or 
a physical being could occupy, then that was the 
enemy, and it is from everlasting. Hence, the atone- 
ment must measure back with the occasion that 
required it. 

Th s view of the atonement relieves it of all the dif- 
ficulty that had previously gathered around it, and 
shows it to be an absolute necessity in nature and to 
occupy just the place and period that it does in the 
Lord's rulings and workings in the universe in the 
light of Bible teaching. But the commonly received 
opinion is that the atonement was ordained after the 
fall of man seemed to require it; such opinion must 
plunge the whole subject into unfathomable and 
hopeless difficulty. For if man was created very 
good, and if the fallen spirits were also created very 
good; but if some of them did originate sin and thus 
fell, then the power that originated those that are 
fallen is the cause of all the consequences of the fall, 
and becomes the author of all sin, and also the cause 
of- all suffering and death; thus all the lost of this 
earth and all the lost spirits will charge their loss and 



SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

their suffering to the creator; all of the seven attri- 
butes are sacrificed, and the Bible cannot be regarded 
as a book of truth. 

But if the great adversary of the creator and of all 
righteousness and all happiness and bliss, and the 
originator of wrong and sin and suffering and death 
— temporal and spiritual, was an uncreated principle 
in nature, eternal as Deity, but was like the principle 
of fire, it cannot be developed without fuel; but if 
suitable fuel is prepared, and the match lighted, fire 
is developed. Very like that was the principle of 
wrong. It could not be developed until created 
beings could be reached. But when there were created 
agents in existence, both spiritual and physical, then 
the principle was soon developed, and the ordaining 
of the atonement was the declaration of war; u f or 
the invisible things of Him are clearly seen, being 
understood by the things that are made, so that they 
are without excuse. " — Rom. 1:20. We cannot plead 
ignorance in so plain a case. 

But when the fullness of period arrived to bring 
the war into active operation, then the world, the 
ground of action, is here, and the human race for the 
soldiers; and all was very good, for the Lord couldn't 
bring into existence anything that was not very 
good; the armed soldiers with a weapon that could 
defend them everlastingly if they would use it faith- 
fully; but if they listened to the tempter, and sinned 



AND LOaiC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 23 

and fell, and all the race with and in them, so that 
the enemy was permitted to gain a victory over the 
entire race of man; and the strong man, armed, 
would fain keep his palace and his goods in peace, but 
the stronger came on him and took the soldiers of the 
cross from his ranks and drilled and disciplined them 
for four thousand vears, then the commander came to 
the field of action in person, and the hand to hand 
fight commenced when the two champions met in the 
temptation in the wilderness, and it was manifest 
that the strong man could not hold the palace. 
Though the commander has gone to live in the 
Capitol, yet he still commands his army, and must, 
and will, until these seven spirits of God have gained 
a perfect victory over the enemy in all its possible 
bearings. 

Truth must overcome falsehood, and power must 
overcome weakness, and wisdom overcome ignorance, 
and love must overcome malice, and justice overcome 
injustice, and mercy overcome cruelty, and immuta- 
bility overcome vascillation; or, to use the two words, 
right must overcome wrong; and men are invited up 
to so highly a dignified relation as to take a part in 
this vast warfare of eternal consequences. Spiritual 
weapons must overcome carnal weapons. 



24 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 



CHAPTER II. 

THE WORK OF CREATION. 

Creation could not proceed until the work of atone- 
ment was ratified and made reliable. But it is said, 
w In the beginning God created the heaven and the 
earth." The word " create ' here is often explained 
by the legislative powers of the world. The legisla- 
ture of a state often creates a new county by passing 
and confirming an act that a new county shall be 
formed from parts of several other counties that exist 
when the act is passed. But the new county is with- 
out form and void like the earth was when it was 
created. But when the old county officers' term of 
office expires and the counties, new and old, elect 
their officers, and they are duly qualified and the new 
county organized and platted, then it is formed and 
then it is not without form, nor void. But it exists 
as a new and a real county as any other in the state, 
a ready figure of the first chapter of Genesis. All 
things in nature were created, but were without form 
and void, until the proper period would arrive for any 
thing to be useful, then it would be formed and be- 
come useful. But in the second chapter it treats of 
the formation of all vegetables, and animals, of 
the earth, but not of the earth itself. Neither is 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 25 

it said at what period the earth was formed. But it 
was found ready for man when man was formed. If 
the geologist wants to go back any number of years 
the Bible is not in his road. But more of that under 
the head of Li Formation. " 

But consider the vastness of the work of creation, 
all planets, and worlds, and the devising, and determ- 
ining the orbit in which every one should move, and 
the place in the vastness of space that eA^eryone should 
occupy, the relative distance of each, from all others, 
and the laws by which all should be governed in their 
respective orbits and all laws needful to rule any 
planet, in any way would be, or was created with the 
planet, in a connection so inseparable, that when any 
planet would be required and called for, or formed it 
would come forth with every nature perfect that is 
needful for it. Just like any animal or vegetable. 
When a man comes into being he brings all the fac- 
ulties of a man with him. All was provided for in 
creation. And so with every planet that ever did, does 
now, or ever will exist. But they may not all be 
formed yet, maybe not the half of them, though all 
were created in the beginning. But the planet on 
which we live presents to us more interest than all 
the others at this time and we have a much more 
minute description of its creation than all the others. 
One reason for that is because we could not under- 
stand an account of the others if the laws, manners, 



26 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

and habits are different from our own. Another 
reason is we have no need of such knowledge. But 
the essential reason why we are instructed more min- 
utely on the creation of this planet than any of the 
others, is because there are so many unmistakable tes- 
timonies that this is the most important planet that 
the Lord has use for, or that is in nature. But why? 
Because it is a fallen pla.net ? may be asked. Yes, 
and in the nature of things Justice required its re- 
demption, and an atonement for sin. And in connec- 
tion with redemption and atonement for sin also the 
entire overthrow of every principle of wrong, with 
all the fruit it bears, and the utter destruction of its 
power ever to produce insurrection in the Lord's king- 
dom again or to tempt his weakest servant. All this 
was embraced in the creation of this planet, and on 
it that entire work must be finished and yet a great 
amount more. For on this planet the Lord should 
make a revelation of himself to all his subjects, a 
revelation whose words should never pass away, for 
the revelation the Lord makes was made in wisdom? 
for necessary purposes, and its necessity can never 
cease. But this planet was created with perfect 
adaptedness for instrumentalities that by, and in it, 
the Lord would make his revelation perfect. 

And yet another necessary, and vastly great design 
in the creation of this planet was for a theater of war, 
and that, short-sighted man can see. Just open the 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 27 

eyes and see, and admire the perfect adaptedness of 
this entire earth to, and for that vast purpose. A 
very great part of this is revealed to man by his phy- 
sical senses and is not, nor need not be, a matter of 
written revelation; for in either case, the instruction 
is of the Lord, and does make men responsible for 
what knowledge they have: whether by written or 
natural revelation. 

But every intelligent mind sees, and cannot evade 
the force of the facts as they are seen, that constant 
conflict is going on in the world, of right against 
wrong, wisdom against folly, and love against malice. 
Every possible thing that is not right is the enemy 
of right, and the concentrated powers of every spe- 
cies, character, or magnitude of them join their pow- 
ers to gain victory over the right, and the human 
agents are put on their responsibility. The Lord 
says, u occupy till I come." Here is wrong with its 
wages, and also here is right with its gifts and re- 
wards: Choose and act. But settle every one his 
own account when it is full. 

But exceedingly more than all this is embraced or 
comprised in the creation of this planet, and its adapt- 
edness for the accomplishment of the vast purpose for 
which it was designed. This requires all needful in- 
strumentalities to do the work. Leading spirits of su- 
perior power and skill in the physical world would 
choose the cause of wrong, and act as its champions 



28 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

with all the physical and mental power they possess 
that there would be so many of that class in every age 
of the world that the cause of wrong and its champions 
would bear endless testimony that carnal weapons 
could not prevail over spiritual weapons though they 
seemed to possess all possible advantage and hold it 
for a long time. 

But in creation; this planet should possess an 
adaptness for other important necessities for this 
vastly important warfare. In the nature of things 
the enemy could not be conquered if it would not be 
brought into close conflict with the power that could 
conquer it; hence the necessity for these champions 
of wrong, and so many of them, and of such vast 
power and skill, so that wrong in all its forms and 
magnitudes is brought into conflict with the Author 
of right, and the soldier of the cross, and the spiritual 
weapons of the spiritual warfare to meet their utter 
and endless overthrow. 

But it may be thought and said, that the Scripture 
teaches that it is the Lord's love and mercy toward 
man that moves him to such displays of kindness to- 
ward the human race, and not for some vastly greater 
design that lies far back of, and beyond the interests 
of the human race. But say, 0, man, if all that is 
written in the scriptures of the Lord's goodness to 
man is true and a very great amount more, (for so it 
is), does it make the mercies any less valuable; because 



AND LOOIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 29 

there was real necessity for the whole race outside of 
themselves that was the essential reason for their ex- 
istence ? And are the mercies and blessings and high 
privileges not as worthy of the homage of the heart, 
of the fidelity, loyalty? the worship and the praise, 
(could I say more?) of all the earth as if no other 
object had been in the divine purpose but the interest 
of man? But to look at this world as we see it; and 
say that there was no object in its existence higher 
than is seen in its self, is weakness in the eves of 
either Christian or infidel. But if we see the soldiers 
of the cross struggling in the war, dying at their 
posts, conquerers of the world, and afterward exalted 
to a triumphant relation with their commander of the 
army that conquered the enemy of the universe, and 
exhibited in that relation forever, then there is seen 
philosophy in this world. 

There are those who are still of the opinion that 
the first chapter of Genesis means formation as well 
as creation, but do not explain the difficulties that it 
involves therein. For example, 4t the earth was with- 
out form and void," and the third day shows the 
growing of trees and grass. But the fourth day 
shows the creation of sun, moon and stars, involving 
natural impossibilities, and yet some think the infidel 
should not show the absurdity of such an opinion ! 
And again in the creation man and woman are brought 
to view at the same time; and the last of all things 



30 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

created. Impossible to reconcile it with the second 
chapter, which shows man first of all, then the veget- 
ables and animals of earth, then the woman. But if 
we take the first chapter for creation or legislation, 
and the second chapter for formation, both are clear 
and right, for the plants and herbs of the field were 
created in the first chapter. But in second chapter, 
at the formation, the plants had not been in the earth, 
nor had not grown, nor had there been rain upon the 
earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 
But then formution goes on. 

Other thoughts are noticed in other pages, but no- 
tice one more here. That is, it is said to be 4004 
years from the commencement of the life of the first 
man Adam to the birth of our Savior, and we are in 
the 1887th year of the christian era. These two per- 
iods added make 5891 years. But it is said that in 
the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 
Such an opinion seems to place tbe beginning or the 
commencement of creation 5891 years ago. Now i£ 
the Creator is without beginning, can wisdom be 
found in such an idea? And the ideas that have been 
held that creation and formation mean the same 
thing are contrary to the scriptures and to reason, 
and shut the truth out from the Bible, and throw im- 
penetrable darkness over that part of the scripture. 
But in the light of these pages, all is plain scriptural, 
philosophical and easily seen. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 31 

CHAPTER III. 

ON" FORMATION". 

Formation is the act of bringing anything into 
existence, but creation is the legislative authority that 
anything and everything shall be brought into exist- 
ence when wisdom requires them, but nothing sooner. 
All things in nature were created within a period that 
the Bible terras six days; and a seventh day was a day 
of rest; and after this or then, we might suppose 
Him that rested was refreshed, but no part of crea- 
tion had yet appeared. Every possible thing in 
nature was endowed in its creation with every qualifi- 
cation that could be necessary to make it perfect, to 
answer the design for which it was intended; so that 
when anything would be formed, whether planet or 
person, men or angels, all would come into being per- 
fectly fitted to fill their places. Hence the Lord said, 
at the close of creation, " Behold it is all very good." 
— Genesis 1:31. 

The second chapter of Genesis very briefly treats of 
formation, but not of creation, except the first three 
verses that belong to the first chapter. The earth is 
formed here ready for man when man was formed, 
but no account of when the earth was formed. Other 
scripture informs us that other planets were in exist- 
ence before ours, or this earth. Job, xxxviii:4-7. 



32 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

The Lord said to Job: " Where was thou when I laid 
the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast 
understanding. Who hath laid the measures thereof, 
if thou knowest ? or who hath stretched the line upon 
it? whereupon are the foundations thereof fastened? 
or who laid the corner stone thereof, when the morn- 
ing stars sang together, and all the sons of God 
shouted for joy?" This shows, for the scriptures can- 
not be broken, that when the first move was made to 
form this earth that there were stars to sing, and 
there were sons to shout. That meets all the diffi- 
cult}' in the first chapter, about the growth of vegeta- 
tion before the sun gave light or heat. It also 
removes all opposition from the science of geology, 
for if the geologist wants to make the period millions 
of ages since the earth was formed, the Bible is not in 
the road. It shows that all the planets were not 
formed at one time, or period; and they may not all 
be in existence yet; for although all were created in 
the beginning; nothing should be formed until wis- 
dom required it, then Omnipotence w r ould call it, and 
it would come forth in all perfection. But to return 
to the formation of the animal and vegetable depart- 
ments of this earth; begin with the fourth verse: 
" These are generations of the heavens and of the 
earth when they were created, in the day that the 
Lord God made the earth and the heavens;" fifth 
verse: " And every plant of the field before it was 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 33 

in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; 
for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the 
earth, and there was not a man to till the ground." 

In the fifth verse it says the plants and herbs were 
created and made, but had not been in the earth, nor 
had ever grown, nor had there ever been rain upon 
the earth, nor was there a man to till the ground. 
The plants, and herbs, and the rain, and man had been 
created, but had not been formed. Surely, how could 
it ever have been misunderstood or seem dark to any 
one? 

But the sixth verse gives account of the first rain, 
and the seventh verse gives an account of the forma- 
tion of the entire human race in the person of the 
first man — " And man became a living soul," the 
entire race of man, including the body that our Lord 
lived in, what was earthly of it. Of the dust of the 
ground the Lord God formed man, and out of the 
ground made the Lord God to grow all vegetation ; 
and out of the ground the Lord God formed every 
beast of the field, and every fowl of the air. In all 
this forming the word ct create : is not used. But 
when the woman appeared another w r ord was used : 
*' And the rib which the Lord God had taken from 
the man, made He a woman and brought her to the 
man." She was formed in the person of a man; 
but when she was transformed, it is described by the 
words "made He a woman. 11 
3 



34 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

Surely these remarks on formation must demon- 
strate that formation and creation are entirely differ- 
ent, having but little analogy the one to the other. 
When the Lord created man in His own likeness, in 
the image of God created He him, male and female 
created He them. But nothing more about them 
till formation is spoken of, and then we read, "And 
the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, 
and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and 
man became a living soul." Here was the physical 
and the spiritual man. But after man was formed; 
he is, and is a living soul ; and after beasts and fowls 
were formed they were living, active creatures, like 
the man; for we see them all pass before the man to 
receive their name. After all this, the woman was 
brought to view, but she was not formed, for she was 
formed in the person of Adam. But a rib was taken 
from Adam or the man, "made He a woman," and 
brought her to the man. So different are the 
accounts of the creation and formation that it is the 
weakness of the Bible's claim to truth to try to 
reconcile the two chapters to mean the same thing. 
But if the first chapter means creation or legislation, 
and the second chapter means formation or execu- 
tion, then both are perfectly clear, and all trouble is 
removed out of the way of philosophy and also out of 
the way of geology. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 35 

In these chapters the principles of theology and 
philosophy meet and are perfectly reconciled to each 
other. The proper interpretation of the scripture is 
the proper theology, and in every particular proper 
theology and true philosophy are at perfect agree- 
ment. If there were a large money reward offered 
for showing clear philosophy to be in perfect har- 
mony with clear theology, it would soon be done. 
But why should it not be the object of everybody's 
search until it is found? Is this very thing not the 
cause of the distraction of all civilized countries? 
England and Germany and the United States, are all 
taxing their learning and their eminent scholars to 
find reconciliation between theology and philosophy. 
But it is sought in the wisdom of the world, and its 
plain simplicity overlooked. 

Why should it be unpardonable heresy to dissent 
from Martin Luther, or John Calvin, or George Fox, 
the Quaker, or John Wesley? These were all great 
reformers and brought very much light on questions 
that most needed to be made clear, in their day. But 
other questions have arisen since their day that, at 
this time, need to be shown up in a light that will 
show reason, power and clearness in the Bible, and 
rescue the Bible and Christianity from under the feet 
of infidelity, and enable all Christians to see that 
they have a philosophically permanent foundation 
for the hope that is within them . 



36 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

I wish to bring one more idea on the rela- 
tion that formation sustains to creation. That is 
in the person of Jesus Christ, who was so connected 
with the Divine that he was counted the foundation 
of all things, head of all things; the bed-rock of all 
creation, and was an absolute necessity for the exist- 
ence of all things; or of anything at all, and He was 
created or ordained before creation commenced. This 
is clear from the fact that all things were created by 
Him. His physical body was formed in the person 
of the first man, Adam, but this person of so vast 
importance to all nature, was not produced until 
4004 years after Adam's life commenced. Now the 
philosophy of all this is the infinity of all the attri- 
butes that make up the Divine character, for His 
purposes are all devised in infinite wisdom, and His 
infinite power secures the certainty of His purposes, 
as really when the purpose is determined as it can be 
after the work is performed, like the acts, or decrees, 
of a responsible government. 

Bnt if the very greatest events in nature are 
ordained first of all, yet their development deferred 
through vast periods utterly unknown to flesh and 
blood, or human mind, then is it unreasonable to 
admit the idea that this planet and the human race 
were created in the beginning, but not formed until 
wisdom required them, and the period for them to 
be useful had arrived? Here we see that theology 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 37 

and philosophy meet and marry together and live in 
the oneness of that relation perfectly. But satan 
and his servants try to sever them. u What God hath 
joined together let not man put asunder." But how 
successful has the enemy been in sundering this mar- 
riage in the eyes of the church and of all the world. 
This principle is also seen in nature around us, for 
how many instances have been developed, of a man 
and a woman joining their destinies in marriage, 
lawful and honorable, but a fascinating man marks 
that young wife for his victim. Or a woman of 
similar fascinating power will mark the young hus- 
band for her victim, and they will meet the object of 
their fiendish hope, anywhere, at church, or at their 
home, or on the street, in the store, or any place, and 
often meet by appointment, until the lawful mar- 
riage is hopelessly severed, or the parties cease to love 
ever after. Now the severing of the marriage rela- 
tion that God hath ordained in either of the 
instances is the work of that enemy that the Lord 
and His servants are conquering in the great warfare 
of the earth. But what estimate can be set on the 
man or the woman that will become the willing dupe 
in the hand of the devil to do that contemptible 
work that a fallen spirit could not do in person? An 
old Christian man said in my presence, speaking in 
love feast, as he stood near the pulpit, that some 
men were meaner than the devil, for the devil could 



SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

not do every low, mean, dirty thing, but he could 
send some man to do it for him, at the same time 
putting his hand on his preacher's knee with a gen- 
tle shake, greatly to the mirth of the audience. And 
if the old man's estimation is possible, that a man or 
woman can get down lower and meaner than the 
devil, it is found in the person that will sever the 
marriage relation. 



CHAPTER IV. 

origin or sln\ 



First — Who could not be, nor was not the author of 

sin. 
Second — What was, and in the nature of things, 

must be the author of sin. 

How, or by whom could sin have been originated, 
or can that be seen both logically and scripturally? 

The Creator could not originate sin or wrong, nor 
could He create any being that could originate sin or 
wrong, because He is infinitely good and He is infin- 
ite in every attribute of goodness, and is not capable 
of doing wrong or evil, or in any way causing them 
to be done. If he would create an agent whether 
spirit or physical agent that could and would 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 39 

originate sin or wrong that would make Him 
the origin of all sin. Thus the fountain and 
source of all goodness would be found to be the 
author of all sin and wrong, and of all their conse- 
quences, all suffering and death in the physical world, 
and also of the everlasting punishment in the world 
of lost spirits. This must be true, because Wisdom 
knew the end from the beginning, and could not but 
know all the consequences of the acts of any creature 
to whom He would give up life and intelligence to 
choose; therefore, to produce such agent, knowing 
the consequences of such production, must make the 
producer the author of all the agent does. 

Such authorship in the Creator would be the sacri- 
fice of every attribute of the divine character. 

If sin was not the product of a self-existent prin- 
ciple in nature co-eternal with the Almighty, and 
ndependent of Him, then all things in nature must 
exist by the Creator's power and authority. Hence, 
it would be in the nature of things impossible to 
exonerate the Creator from the authorship of all the 
sin and suffering in the universe. 

And yet another reason why the great enemy of 
the universe was a self-existent principle in nature, 
and that all choosing a sinful life are but the servants 
of that enemy is found in the fact that it is impos- 
sible for infinite purity and perfection to do wrong. 
Consequently, if there had not been some principle 



40 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

in nature that was the source of evil and sin and 
wrong, and not subject to the divine command, then 
if the Lord of the universe did not originate the sin, 
and creatures could not, sin nor wrong could never 
have been seen, and all creation would be one vast 
heaven of bliss and happiness. 

An infidel, in his argument against the Bible, said 
that right and wrong are eternal, and evidently 
thought it an unanswerable argument against the 
Bible. But this is the very dagger that will shed the 
blood of infidelity without mercy. For wrong, being 
an eternal principle in nature, not created, but self- 
existent, it is the first cause and the essential element 
of all evil, and is itself the origin of sin. The first 
element of wrong is possibility, and possibility is the 
first essential element in the existence of anything. 
Many possibilities are unknown to the human race 
for ages because they are not developed. But when 
some mind is led to see the possibility, and to search 
out the means for its development, and bring the pos- 
sibility to view or into existence. Then it is devel- 
oped, but possibility underlies every other condition 
of its existence, like unto the power of electricity, as 
in the telegraph, the electric light, or any other use 
to which it is put. But if it is claimed that origin 
implies action, then the first action taken is the ori- 
gin of any work, but the origin of the nature or 
principle of any work, whether good or evil, is found 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 41 

in the natural principle of the work produced. Good 
cannot be evil, and neither can evil be good. 

The sin or evil that becomes visible is the fruit 
that the principle bears, but it is developed by the 
agent that produces it, the principle itself being the 
origin of its fruit. 

Here is the true solution of the origin of sin, 
which removes all the difficulty from that vast ques- 
tion that ever gathered round it, and is in harmony 
with all the Scripture, and with all things in nature. 
It is the only answer to the great question that has 
taxed the learning and the talent of the principal 
countries of the globe, Germany, France, England 
and America. This explanation of the origin of sin, 
together with one more thought as prominent and as 
troublesome as itself, will remove almost all difficul- 
ties from the Bible. That thought is that this planet 
was called into existence expressly for the purpose of 
a warfare for the overthrow of that vast enemy of 
all righteousness, and peace, and happiness and com- 
fort and enjoyment — the origin of sin. 

These two great truths when seen in their reason- 
able and scriptural light, will show why the wicked- 
ness of this world is suffered by an overruling power 
of infinite goodness, because it is the only possible 
way to overcome the monster, and like some wars of 
the world, the objects or benefits are so vast it will 
justify the expense it costs. 



42 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

The idea that sin was originated by some created 
agent of vast intelligence must necessarily leave the 
entire charge of wrong, with all its unfathomable 
consequences, on the Creator. All sin of all worlds, 
and all the fruit that wrong and sin bear, which is 
death spiritual and physical; all suffering, whether 
physical or spiritual, as well as the everlasting pun- 
ishment in the world of hopeless despair; all that 
descends from such agent mast as a matter of neces- 
sity descend from the power that endowed that agent 
with power to originate the wrong, or the sin, and to 
perpetuate it. But we see the origin of sin was a 
principle in nature that was without origin, but was 
self-existing, as was the principle of right, and for 
which the Creator was not responsible, but is like the 
principle of fire in the material world, which cannot 
be seen until the necessary agent, fuel, is produced, 
and caused to ignite; then fire is developed. 

The fire is a clear figure of the great prin- 
ciple of wrong existing in nature co-eternal with 
the principle of right, which could not be devel- 
oped until intelligent agents were created. But 
agency implies the power of choice, and when 
created agents came into existence they could not 
exist out of reach of right and wrong, the one as 
easy of access as the other. The principle of right 
was the origin of all good, and the principle of wrong 
was the origin of all evil, or sin. But self-existent 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 43 

Deity contained the principle of all righteousness, 
and made provision to meet the self-existent enemy 
that existed in nature before the creation of anything 
could or did commence. For the name of Jesus 
Christ is brought to our understanding from everlast- 
ing, and from the eternal, and as far back as that 
name appears as connected with the ruling of the 
human race, so far back was all His work appointed 
to Him, leaving men without excuse if they cannot 
defend His word on the principles of the clearest 
logic and the most philosophical reason. 

For it is a natural impossibility for the Creator, 
who is perfect and pure, to create agents with facul- 
ties really necessary for agency, and put them any 
place in boundless space, where the wrong would not 
be as accessible to them as the right. But the wrong 
could not be developed until created agents would 
exist for the wrong to act upon. 



44 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 



CHAPTER V. 

FALL OF ANGELS AND MEN. 

By what, or by whom, was the fall produced? 
The Lord could not produce it and creatures could 
not, but a principle, not a person, could. At the 
close of the narrative of creation, it is written that 
God saw everything that he had made, and beheld 
that it was very good. But after this, the human 
race was formed in the person of the first man, and 
a part of the man was transformed into a woman, 
and in them was the rite of marriage established. 
The next account we have of them was that they 
were tempted, and sinned, and fell, and were no more 
very good. Whence came the temptation? The 
Bible reads thus, "The serpent beguiled the woman." 
But in latter days it is said the devil tempted the 
woman. Was he always a devil? It is mostly con- 
ceded that the personage that is called the devil was 
created an angel of high rank, but by some means 
has fallen, and became the leader of all wickedness. 
But was there any sin in the universe before the first 
angels, one or more became apostates, or could such 
thing be possible? Could infinite goodness originate 
sin? No, impossible; such thing could not come to 
pass. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 45 

Then, if creative authority could not originate sin 

without sacrificing truth and justice, and love and 
mercy, undeifying self-existent deity and destroying 

his power to create — for nothing less than infinite 
purity and perfection can possess the power to cre- 
ate—if, then, the great Almighty did create men and 
angels, who afterward sinned and fell, could it be 
possible that the entire future of those angels and 
men that fell was not known to the Creator as per- 
fect before they were created, as it can be known 
after the whole of these vast events have come to 
pass? Such possibility would destroy the perfections 
of Godhead. 

But seeing all the consequences of all creatures 
were known, and the creator endowed the element, 
that has became fallen, with faculties capable of fall- 
ing and sinning, then the origin of sin and of their 
fall must be found to be elsewhere than in the crea- 
ture. For if the creature originated sin, then, as a 
matter of immovable truth, the entire consequence 
of the origin of wrong and sin falls back primarily 
on the Creator, who endowed them with ability to 
produce such results. Here, then, in the light of 
Bible teaching, and in the light of reason and truth, 
there is but one conclusion possible, and that con- 
clusion is that the fall of angels and men, or the 
human race, was produced by the origin of sin as set 
forth in the fourth chapter of this writing, 



46 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

Wrong interpretations will make darkness in any- 
thing that is written. Why should it be contended 
for, that wrong must have had an active, intelligent 
agent to produce it, or to be the originating cause of 
it? Why not rather admit the idea that wrong as 
well as right, is eternal? The right was inherent in 
self-existent Deity, and it was, and is productive of all 
righteousness, but could not produce wickedness or 
sin, or evil. But the wrong that was eternal had not 
any active, intelligent agent that could develop it un- 
til created intelligence would exist, but was like fire, 
the nature or principle of which exists alike every- 
where; but to make it useful it must be developed by 
the aid of suitable material. So the principle of 
wrong could not be developed without the aid of 
suitable material, which was created agents, whether 
spiritual or physical. But the principle of right can- 
not produce wrong or evil. Neither can the princi- 
ple of wrong produce righteousness or good. Wrong 
is the enemy of all nature. Hence, the propriety of 
preparing to meet, and bring that enemy under 
divine control before anything could be created that 
the enem}^ could contaminate. And the installation 
of the Commander, that must reign till he hath put 
all enemies under his feet, was the inauguration of 
the war. But after that was established by an un- 
changeable decree, then the Atoner and the Com- 
mander could create all things. Treated in chapter 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 47 

1. Hence, that adverse principle in nature, which 
was the antagonist of the source of all righteousness 
and all goodness, was the germ from which all sin 
and all evil were originated and perpetuated. It 
is all the fruit of the great principle, wrong. To 
overcome that enemy, the warfare was a real 
necessity. It could not be overcome only in the 
hands of its friends; for carnal weapons must meet 
spiritual weapons until the power of that universal 
enemy would be brought to an end everlastingly. 
But co overcome that enemy, its developments was an 
absolute necessity, and this is the reason why the 
great Commander permitted the enemy to produce 
the fall of angels and men, that the other extermin- 
ation of the enemy's power might be secured. Then 
their falls are not mysteries, neither do they 
lack reason or logic, but are as clear philosophy as 
that fire produces heat, or burns. But none can fall, 
save by voluntary choice, and everyone will reap that 
which he willingly sows. 

It has been the speculation of many, since my 
memory serves me, as to what would have been the 
condition of men if they had remained perfect, holy, 
pure. Some think that if angels nor men had fallen 
that man would have remained in perfect bliss on this 
planet everlastingly. 

Others advance the idea that the whole race would 
have been sinless, and would not have suffered but 



48 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

live in perfect happiness until the old structure 
would be worn out, and then pass into endless bliss 
without suffering. Various other theories have been 
advanced, but what better is any or all of this than 
infidelity? For if this world and the human race 
had not been natural necessities to do the work that 
they have done, are doing, and will do, then they 
would not ever have been seen, they would not 
at all. For if the Creator is perfect and im- 
mutable in power and in knowledge and wis- 
dom, and as perfect in love and mercy, truth 
and justice, then it is impossible that this or any 
other planet could exist any other way than to 
accomplish the purpose for which it was designed in 
creation. Then the question might arrise, "Does 
not this make the Creator the author of sin?" But 
that has been already answered. The Creator cannot 
produce, nor cause to be produced, anything wrong 
or sinful. But his enemy does produce all the evil 
and sin in nature, and the Creator suffers so much 
and no more as will serve for its own entire over- 
throw. But the infidel asks, tc why does not the 
Lord appear for the rescue of his own struggling 
people, and also to rescue the millions whose minds 
the enemy holds in a spiritual prison and leads them 
captive at his will?" 

That inquiry is answered by the events of the war 
of insurrection in America. There were a number 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 49 

of places in the South that were called prisons. 
Those prisoners that the South would take from the 
North would be put in those prisons and so in- 
humanly treated that many of them chose death, and 
sought death, and the accounts of cruelty shocked 
the country from center to circumference. But 
could the national authorities not have released 
them? Yes, they had the power to recall the army 
and acknowledge the Southern government. The 
next day would have released all the prisoners, but 
they could not release those sufferers without 
abandoning the object of the war. 

Neither can the great Commander release those 
whose spirits are held in prison, nor can he release 
the soldier of the cross until the ends of wisdom and 
necessity are accomplished. The enemy must be 
overcome by a fair hand to hand fight. Then every 
one will receive his reward. The Lord did not suffer 
men to grow wicked that he might make a display of 
His power in their destruction. - But those who 
choose the ways of wickedness are suffered to do so 
just so far as their wickedness can be made to answer 
an absolutely necessary purpose and no farther. 

The great Commander in this vast warfare has the 
most unconditional control of, and over, everything 
in nature that was created, and over all the work 
that any, or all creatures can or do perform, be they 
good or bad. But an uncreated principle that is not 
4 



50 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

intelligent, not active, and can only act in one direc- 
tion, such principle being eternal in its nature, is not 
subject to the control of any power, but the evil it 
produces is like the creature, it is subject to the 
Divine control. 

It is clear that if the great eternal King would have 
a perfect kingdom and a perfect government, he 
must subdue that natural enemy, and as the enemy 
was a vast one, it requires a vast warfare for its over- 
throw, and that warfare was inaugurated as far back 
in the period of the past as we find the name of 
Jesus Christ installed as ruler and commander, and 
that is from everlasting, Micah. 1 and 2, and also 
eternal, Ephesians 3:11. It is taught clear as 
anything can be, both in the old and new testament, 
that the great Commander does possess the most 
absolute power and authority over all created nature. 
But the human race must carry the warfare through 
on the principles of free agency, and all choose the 
side of the army to join. Then the wicked element 
is as essential to bring the wrong where the soldier 
of the cross can overcome it, as the soldier of the 
cross is needful to overcome it. But everything that 
could be done to save the agents and not destroy their 
agency, the Lord has done. Hence he says, " what 
could have been done more to my vineyard that I 
have not done it?" Isaiah 5:4 and Daniel 12:2, 
" And many of them that sleep in the dust of the 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 51 

earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some 
to shame and everlasting contempt." Third verse: 
tl And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness 
of the firmament; and they that turn many to right- 
eousness as the stars for ever and ever/' 

What vast inducements are offered to those that 
turn a sinner from the error of his way, who " shall 
save a soul from death, and shall hide a multitude of 
sins," besides the rewards offered to those that bring 
the wanderer back. We have the Lord's desire to- 
ward the wicked that they would turn; as in Ezekiel 
33:11, u He delights not in the death of the wicked, 
but rather they would turn and live." Lamentations 
14:33, "For He doth not afflict willingly, nor grieve 
the children of men." 1st Timothy, second and third 
verse T " Who will have all men to be saved, and to 
come unto the knowledge of the truth." And 2d 
Peter, 11:9, "Not willing that any perish, but that 
all should come to repentence." Hence it is the 
Lord cannot righteous^ save the sinner only by his 
own agency, and it grieves Him at His heart to see 
agents make bad choice. But " There is joy in 
heaven over one sinner that repenteth." For right- 
eousness will result in life and happiness, just as 
wickedness will result in endless misery, despair and 
hopeless death. And these results follow these 
causes as naturally as cause produces effect in any 
thing in nature. 



52 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

CHAPTER VI. 

THE WARFARE. 

When the War was Inaugurated, and its Nature: 

Chapter one shows natural necessity for the great 
war of the universe, in which this planet and the 
human race are engaged, and the sole purpose and 
design of the existence of the human race, or for a 
sinful race. The teaching of the Bible, directly and 
indirectly, shows this warfare with such force that 
its meaning cannot be mistaken, and all nature con- 
spires to bear testimony to the same fact. 

As far back as we can find, the name and person- 
age of Jesus Christ, that far back we must consider 
him in conection with this world and the human 
race, reigning in all the realm of this planet, and 
over its inhabitants, after he had created them. And 
he must reign until he hath put all enemies under 
his feet. 1st Cor., chapter 15 and verse 25. The 
commencement of his reign and of the warfare may 
be found at, or near the same period. There are 
many expressions in the old testament that put that 
event the same as the new testament, that is before 
all things. Micah, 5th chapter and 2d verse, says: 
"He was from everlasting," and Eph. 3 and 11, says: 
"According to the eternal purpose which he purposed 
in Christ Jesus, our Lord." So far back was all his 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 53 

work appointed to him by an unchangeable decree 
and could not be omitted or be a failure, and this 
Ruler and Commander in the warfare, being installed 
in these offices, was the inauguration of the war. 

The Bible puts the ratification of the atonement 
and all its connected work of the warefare under his 
rule and command; all, before there was any created 
thing in existence, either planet or agent. Bat after 
he was ordained commander and atoner, he was cre- 
ator of all things. This leaves us with no need of 
any further testimony that the enemy to be subdued 
was a natural one, self-existent as Deity, and was not 
subject to the divine command like all created 
nature. Hence, the necessity of a war to over- 
come the power and the work of the natural enemy. 

To make any war a success, the fighting element, 
or the soldiers, are an indispensible necessity, and 
human beings are the soldiers for that spiritual war- 
fare. But another necessity is a commander, and our 
Jesus is the great Commander-in-chief, and meets all 
necessities. But in this warfare another equal neces- 
sity was an atonement for sin, for the entire race, 
that would fall in the person of the first pair, for 
that warfare could not be carried on by pure hands, 
on pure ground. The evil must meet the good or it 
could not be overcome, and the Commander under- 
takes the atonement. 



54 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

From the initiation of the race, by whom the war- 
fare would be fought and finished, the enemy's work 
was displayed in producing the fall of the first pair. 
Everything from the commencement shows that 
the commander and Lord of the righteous army 
designed making a perfect work of the warfare, for 
he permitted the enemy to bring the entire race 
under his banners in the person of the first pair. He 
was the strong man armed, and would fain have kept 
the palace and his goods in peace. But the great 
Commander is the stronger, that came upon him, and 
overcame him and has divided the spoils. But the 
fight was not to commence yet. The Commander 
takes his soldiers from the ranks of the enemy and 
thus divides the spoils, and disciplines them the next 
four thousand years. After that the Commander-in- 
chief comes to the field in person, and so soon as he 
acquired the lawful age he entered the battle ground 
and commenced active service in the hand to hand 
fight, first by fulfilling all obligations when he was 
initiated into the priesthood. 

He armed himself with perfect obedience by ful- 
filling the law of ronsecration, for the priest was 
washed with water at the door of of the taber- 
nacle, not in water; Ex. xxix:4. Jesus was washed 
at the door of the Christian dispensation by his bap- 
tism in Jordan. And the priest was anointed with 
the emblem of the Holy Ghost; Ex. xxix:7. But 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 55 

Jesus, after his washing, received the anointing by 
the Holy Ghost in reality. The dove lit on him, 
Then, being armed for the conflict, the next account 
is that he was in the wilderness and met the cham- 
pion of wrong hand to hand, but conquered him. 

All the time he was with his followers, he in- 
structed them by example and by precept to meet 
evil with good, and hatred with love, and to meet 
wrong with right in all cases, using spiritual weapons 
against carnal weapons. When he was arrested one 
of his disciples took the sword, but the Lord forbade 
it, and healed the wound that was made on his enemy; 
and gave his disciples to know that more than twelve 
legions of angels were at his command; but they 
must overcome with spiritual weapons, good for evil. 
The enemy thought to overcome him when they put 
him to death, but the greatest conquest that ever was 
gained in the universe, was gained at the moment of 
our Savior's death. And with these arms, or spirit- 
ual weapons, the followers of the great Commander 
are gaining victories, and will until the spirit of 
Christ has overcome all opposition. 

When we consider in the light of the Bible the 
nature of the warfare, and also, in the light of the 
experience of the church, and of the world up to the 
present time, it is essentially right against wrong. 
The soldiers of the croasare led by him whose they are; 
and him that redeemed, and bought them with his 



56 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

own blood. Their weapons are entirely spiritual, 
not carnal, and to be clothed or armed with the 
spirit of their leader, is the only armor that can or 
that ever did gain a permanent conquest. But the 
appearance sometimes is as though the whole world, 
including the church, was using carnal weapons, as 
when Eligah, the prophet, thought that all were 
gone over to Baal, and himself alone was left, and 
they sought his life, but there were a few left then. 
But again, in the days of the French revolution, so 
universal became the carnal weapon that they 
thought they had destroyed the last Bible, and a 
Christian must not be suffered within the limits of 
the government. But when in either case they would 
find man or woman, young or old, with no visible 
means of defense, they would with their carnal 
weapons put them to death. The signal victory was 
to those who, like their Lord, gave their life willingly 
for the truth's sake, and were faithful unto death. 
When they are dead, their blood speaketh. But the 
spirit of malice cannot conquer malice, either with 
or without arms, and never did. But when the spirit 
of Christ is seen in man or woman, malice trembles 
before it, and often will run from it, and often hide 
from it; but if the same person would meet malice, 
with malice, he could have no power at all. But 
some seem to think that there are none in the world 
who possess this spirit of Christ, or so few, if any. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 57 

What can the}^ do? Yes, they are the small minor- 
ity. But there are a few, and always has been, who 
were true with all their ability. These, under their 
Lord, have conquered the world, and are now coquer- 
ing the world, and ultimately will conquer the world 
through Christ. But an exceedingly more dangerous 
circumstance, wherein is danger of a universal apost- 
asy, is that where the government secures to all lib- 
erty of conscience, and when and where religion is 
popular, people think it honorable to belong to 
church, and whatsoever grows into public favor can 
be christened and brought into the church. The 
church and the world can go to church together, and 
go to any place of amusement together, and con- 
science is treated with disdain, and the cross not 
mentioned or known. And the person thai the peo- 
ple can find no fault in, must be crucified as in (John 
xix:6) their good name, or in their business, or in 
their property, or reputation, or any way, but put 
them down. These things make the Christian path 
narrower than it can be made by the monarchical 
power, or persecution, or poverty, or sickness, or loss 
of property, or for friends to turn enemies without 
cause. Let any one live under such circumstances, 
and let him give his attention to securing a good con- 
science, and he will likely be surprised to know that 
there is perhaps not one within his knowledge to 
sympathize with him. But his weapons are not 



58 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down 
of strongholds. 

The most perfect record of the Christian's armor 
is found in the fifth, sixth and seventh chapters of 
Matthew, called the sermon on the mount. And 
though that sets forth a very high rule of action, 
and of perfection, and some think, flesh and blood 
never can attain it, yet the Bible makes no lower 
rule of action than is made in the sermon on the 
mount. 

When the soldiers have the perfect armor and will 
stand firm with it, it is then that they are perfectly 
unconquerable. Victory is certain, for their com- 
mander is in the field; though he was dead, behold he 
is alive forever more. And when one or more of his 
soldiers put on the whole armor and stand firm and 
loyal until death, behold the Commander is with 
them ; and it is easier for heaven and earth to part 
than those soldiers to fail of victorv. 

But does any one dispute that there was and is a 
warfare on this planet? And if there manifestly is 
a vast war extending from the fall of man to the 
present time, and growing warmer and more fierce, 
then, if infinite power and wisdom created this planet, 
did He not design it for the very work it is doing? 
Or has the world deceived the Lord, and gathered the 
vast majority of the race into the ranks of wicked- 
ness, and is holding them there in defiance of creative 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 59 

power? Surely the Lord was not deceived in the 
work the world is doing. But a few passages to 
support the truth that Christ and his servants are 
engaged in a warfare: Luke x:18, " I behold Satan as 
lightning fall from heaven. " Luke xi:21, 22, t£ When 
a strong man armed keeps his palace, his goods are in 
peace; but when a stronger than he shall come upon 
him and overcome him, he taketh from him all his 
armor wherein he trusted and divideth his spoils.' 
John xii:31, " Now is the judgment of this world; 
now shall the prince of this world be cast out/ 1 
John xvi:ll, " Of judgment because the prince of this 
world is judged." John xiv:30, ^ For the prince of 
this world cometh and hath nothing in me." — Agree- 
ing with Genesis iii:15, u It shall bruise thy head and 
thou shalt bruise his heel." 68th Psalm, verse 18: 
" Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast led captivity 
captive. 1 ' Also, Eph., iv:8; Col., ii:15, " And having 
spoiled principalities and powers he made a show of 
them openly, triumphing over them in it." Heb.> 
xi:14, "That through death he might destroy him 
that had the power of death, that is the devil." 
Rev. ix:l, " And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw r a 
star fall from heaven into the earth; and to him was 
given the key of the bottomless pit." And much 
more. Rev., xii:7, 8, " And there was war in heaven; 
Michael and his angels fought against the dragons, 
and the dragons fought and his angels, and prevailed 



60 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

not; neither was their place found any more in 
heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, that old 
serpent called the devil and satan, which deceiveth 
the whole world, and he was cast out into the earth, 
and his angels were cast out with him." 

Now, if Bible is testimony, then, surely, we are in 
the midst of a war, and if the perscutions of the pure 
worshippers are brought to view, how many millions 
of Christian men and women, young and old, lay 
down their lives willingly on the altar of truth and 
righteousness for their Lord's sake? The warfare 
was fierce and terrible then, but every life so laid 
down was a conqueror. 

Our risen Lord in sending his messages to the seven 
churches, closed each of the seven, with a promise "to 
him that overcometh." 

But there is a day and also a year mentioned when 
the great leader will take hold of this warfare in a 
more terrible manner. Isaiah, xxxvi:8, " For it is the 
day of the Lord's vengeance and the } 7 ear of recom- 
penses for the controversy of Zion." 

In closing this chapter on warfare, it is observable: 
that the why and wherefore of this planet or for its 
existance as it is, has not found a clear solution, and 
it has seemed one of the darkest questions in theology. 
Because any observer can see that all nature is so 
filled with design, and there is no design among men 
but that can be traced to a designer, and the designs 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 61 

seen in nature are so much brighter than does or can 
characterize the works of man, therefore wisdon asks, 
<l Is there a possibility for nature to exist without a 
designer ? ' and the answer is, " No, it cannot.'' But 
another difficulty meets us about the existence of this 
earth as we see it, and that is how could the Lord 
create this world with the perfect knowledge of what 
its inhabitants would do in reference to their fall, and 
all their sin, and the everlasting punishment? If he 
knew all before creation, and that must make him the 
author of sin and of all suffering both in this world, 
and in the world of endless despair if there was not 
real necessity for it in some way. 

If the Lord does really hate sin, and all things in 
nature were subject to his word, as really as his word 
could bring forth a planet, then how could sin exist 
under his dominion? But if the Lord created this 
planet very good, and an enemy has come and origin- 
ated sin, and captured the first pair, and in them the 
entire human race, and has held so vast a majority of 
the world in wickedness in every age of the world, 
then where is the security that that wicked will not 
finally triumph and rule the world everlastingly? 
And it is plain that the utter lack of a logical answer 
to that and several other leading questions, has pro- 
duced uneasy restlessness, all over the religious world 
and has induced many great minds to take issue with 



62 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

the Bible, and to hew out for themselves other cis- 
terns that could hold no water, other systems in 
which there was no rest for their anxious spirit. 

But in the light of these several chapters are not 
all these difficulties made plain and easy? And are 
not these introductory chapters in clear harmony with 
the Bible? If they cannot be condemned by the 
Bible, but do agree with the whole of the scripture, 
and will bring light and reason in all passages that 
have been considered dark and mysterious, then why 
not receive the thoughts and help to make a better 
improvement of them, until the slander shall be lifted 
off the Bible and its author, and the infidel left with- 
out an inch of room to wheel on ? For surely it has 
been shown that these things were necessary for 
the success of the war; and were all perfectly pro- 
vided for in creation. But creative power never pro- 
duced sin, yet when the very power that the war was 
brought against; (no matter who was the agent); 
came to tempt the first pair to sin, notice the armor 
they were funrished with. It was, " God hath said, 
we shalt not." This weapon in the hand of that 
woman could faithfully resist and conquer all the 
powers for wrong in nature. It was unconquerable. 
But temptation prevailed and they fell. That is a 
sample of all sin. It is the work of the enemy but 
not of the Lord. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 63 

CHAPTER VII. 

OLD TESTAMENT TYPES. 

The types of the Old Testament have been so little 
considered, and so little effort made to understand 
them, that they appear to very many, like a mass of 
ridiculous trash, for which no sense or meaning can 
be found. The orthodox minister has failed to show 
them up in the light of reason and actual necessity. 
Thev have furnished the strongest hold for the infi- 
del of al most any other, and the Christian world seems 
to let them go on quietly as though they could not 
defend the Bible at that point. That I think a sin- 
ful error. 

For if the types are considered with the vigilence 
that their merit demands, they will be found to be 
the clearest exhibition of wisdom on record, and the 
book of revelation could not be perfect without them. 
But why so? Because these types are the official 
records of the legislative authority of a government. 
But that government was executed with such ability 
and wisdom that they are the most perfect type of a 
christian life, the legal acts were passed mostly all, 
about fourteen hundred years before the Christian 
era. But those types show with perfect clearness the 
duty of man to his Lord, and also to all men. But 
the more excellent feature of these types is that they 



64 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

show so unerringly the highness of men's calling, 
and the exaltedness of their privilege in Christ. But 
most valuable of all they show the fullness and ex- 
cellency of the atonement in all its minutive, and the 
type of the kingdom of Christ set up in the heart, in 
which none but Christ should reign, and show how 
pure the heart must be in which to erect the throne 
where the King will bear rule. That is shown by the 
type that looks darkest and is most objected to, and 
least defended, but nevertheless is one of the richest 
passages of the Bible, and that is the extermination 
of the inhabitants of the land of promise, whether 
east or west of Jordan, and also the Midianites. But 
look at this with rational eves, and common sense 
view, and it is one of the most excellent writings on 
earth. The extermination of the Midianites was a 
type. Here let me speak to the infidel that thinks 
this narrative so perfectly insupportable in the light 
of logical reason. Israel was a type of something 
from the call of Abraham to the present time. The 
people came passively into bondage in Egypt; that is, 
people are born into the world in sin, without their 
agency. But when the Israelites were brought from 
that bondage, that is a type of a soul being converted 
from sin to grace, from darkness to light. When the 
Israelites were at Paran, they were told to go over and 
possess the land. But they thought the inhabitants 
too strong for them, they would not go. This is the 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 65 

Christian. In due time after conversion, they see in 
the word of promise their privilege to inherit a pure 
and perfect heart, the Lord will help to drive his and 
their enemies out of their heart, that he mav dwell 
there. But the fearful one says in his heart, "My 
enemies are too strong for me, my pride, my malice, 
my love of the world, or its fashions, or its habits; 
and many other things so opposite to the spirit of 
Christ, I cannot go to possess the land at this time.' 1 
But when the Lord turned Israel into another course 
to go through the wilderness forty years, and not to 
see the promised land until they would cross the Jor- 
dan, that is the Christian who refuses to leave the 
world and cleanse the Lord's temple of his heart, that 
Christ should dwell in it, and that he might live in 
the spirit of heaven, while on earth. But such have 
yet afforded them one possible chance, one possible 
hope: That was to fight and conquer until the Jor- 
dan is crossed, or if not that, then fall in the wilder- 
ness and never see the salvation of the Lord. When 
Israel had struggled and fought through until they 
came near the Midianites, so near through their jour- 
ney, it is likely the most interesting period of their 
history. To help them along to their journey's end 
safely, would secure to them the promised land; but 
to lead them into idolatry, licentiousness and corrup- 
tion, was their utter and hopeless ruin and despair. 



66 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

The sin into which Israel was led by the Midian- 
ites resulted in the fall of 24,000 of them of Israel, 
but Midian was not yet touched. 

Israel led into sin by Midian, is the Christian, who 
having fought well nigh through the wilderness, 
meets some influential parties that lead him into sin. 
This type is like meridian sun light to all the world 
that will turn a Christian out of the way of Godli- 
ness, into sin and ruin. Without a miracle there is 
but one fate for such, and that is hopeless despair. 
Is it not the clearest logic that the example should 
have been made of Midian that was made? Physi- 
cally they were utterly destroyed except the women 
children. The objection the infidel makes to this is 
absolutely without common sense. The Midianites, 
who were enemies in the war, had rendered them- 
selves so corrupt that justice required their destruc- 
tion; but they were held until a wise use could be 
made of them. They sustained the relation to the 
Lord and his government that the traitor and deserter 
does to a political government when it is warring 
with another nation. Where, then, is the disputer 
that boldly asserts this to be the darkest chapter in 
nature? But, man, to whom do you speak these 
false words? Is not this among the very lightest 
chapters in nature, whether in or out of the Bible? 
Nor was it ever repeated, but one act of the kind was 
a real necessity to teach so important a lesson, and to 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 67 

make revelation. But you may say, <; Could not all 
these things have been taught by precept, and not 
require this wholesale slaughter of human beings P" 
Yes, oh, yes; and it has been taught by words plain 
and easy. But it is like when the snake, or the devil, 
whichever did tempt the woman to eat the forbidden 
fruit; the woman said, "God hath said we shall not.'' 
But the serpent covered over what God had said with 
his own words, and gave it the lie, and induced her to 
commit the sin. In like manner, the infidel, cunning 
as the snake, will cover the words that God hath said 
with his own words, and with a lie, and make the 
world believe that the words of scripture mean any- 
thing but what they do mean. 

If this type is consulted the pilgrim can see that 
what God hath said is true, and the infidel can see as 
plainly his doom, and none can go to the judgment 
blinded. That one case of the Midianites, and a sim- 
ilar order in case of the Canaanites and the Amalek- 
ites are all the exterminating orders the Lord ever 
issued against physical nature, and the last is logical 
as the first. The Lord commanded that when the 
Israelites should drive the heathen out of the prom- 
ised land, they should leave alive nothing that 
breatheth. No such order has ever been issued before 
or since. But why would the God of the Bible issue 
such command respecting the Canaanites? Surely it 
is easily seen. The land was given by an everlasting 



68 soiAttton of bible problems 

covenant for an everlasting possession, as a type, 
until Christ should come, and then give way to the 
anti-type that should be everlasting, reaching into the 
eternal world, where nothing less than perfect parity 
can abide. The natural land must be a perfect type 
of the spiritual land. It might be observed here that 
the inhabitants of Canaan were so corrupt that utter 
destruction was the only fit condition for them. But 
Wisdom held them until the wisest use could be 
made of them. Their treason made them a lawful 
prey when they would be useful. Now these corrupt 
heathens that inhabited the land of promise were the 
fittest type of the indwelling principles of the un- 
changed heart. As the order was to destroy those 
heathens, leaving alive nothing that breatheth, it is 
a perfect type of preparing the human heart for the 
spiritual kingdom, for the reign of the infinitely pure 
and holy Lord Christ, that is, turn everything else 
out, but the King that is to reign therein. But some 
of the tribes failed to drive out or exterminate the 
heathen entirely, and hence, were very soon led by 
them into trouble and sin and bondage. Wh^n they 
would repent and call on the Lord he sent them 
deliverance; but their affinity with the heathen led 
them into sin so repeatedly that the Lord sent Israel 
into hopeless exile, and they became mingled among 
the heathen, and their nationality lost. This is the 
fittest type of Christians who assume to go into the 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 69 

promised land, which is, under Christ, the sanctified 
heart and life; but when they fail to turn the world 
perfectly out of their hearts and lives, the worldly 
principle that is suffered to remain, prohibits the 
reign of Christ and leads them into the world and 
wickedness, and except a miracle is wrought, they 
will, like Israel be hopelessly lost. 

But when one steps into the fullness of the liberty 
of Christ's children in the gospel and is a co-worker 
with Christ to drive all the buyers (John ii, 14-16) and 
sellers out of the temple of his heart, and erect the Re- 
deemer's throne there, and himself stand sentinel day 
and night to guard and keep that heart, such an one 
lives in heaven while on earth ; and when the war is over 
with him, like the man Moses, he is found on the 
mountain height, and the promised land in sight, and 
he enters on to his promised inheritance, but does not 
come in sight of Jordan. 

But the infidel that has said these narratives are 
without reason or explanation, that they are cruel, 
merciless, and not worthy of such character as the 
God of the Bible is represented to be, might he not 
well be ashamed? And you, minister of the cross, 
that have conceded these narratives to be real difficul- 
ties, how have you helped the enemies of the cross, 
when the argument is at hand to defend the cross 
and the Bible and its author? 



70 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

These wars of extermination have seemed the dark- 
est passages of the Bible, but here is logical reason 
that settles a few thoughts, and revelation could not 
be perfect without these very narratives. The exhi- 
bition of truth and justice, love and mercy that is 
shown in these narratives cannot be excelled in the 
light of clear, logical reason. In all political wars 
the crime of treason, joining the opposite army, is 
death, and it seems right in the eyes of every person. 
The well deserved penalty only was exercised on these 
nations. The same is due to treason to all nations or 
men. Another indispensible cause for the types of 
the Old Testament was and is for the discipline of 
the Christian armv, the soldier of the cross. 

When men go into the army of their country as 
soldiers they must be taken through a disciplinary 
course before they are fit for the field. What is the 
propriety of that? It is that they may be skilled in 
handling and using arms, bayonet against bayonet, 
and sword against sword, and all secular weapons 
against the same character of arms; to obey, com- 
mand, and to endure the life and hardships of a sol- 
dier. Nor are the services of a soldier in any depart- 
ment of the army nearly as valuable if they have not 
been well disciplined. If it then requires a costly 
disciplining to prepare men to meet arms with the 
same kind of arms, where all visible prospects are as 
favorable for them as for their opponents, how much 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 71 

more, and more thorough, is the disciplining needful 
for a small army to subdue the world without any 
visible weapons of warfare? But love must contend 
against hatred, and good against evil, and right 
against wrong. The soldiers must be skilled in the 
use of these weapons, so that their victory is sure. 
Pray for them that do you a private injury, or that 
destroy your good name, or your property. Return 
good and kind treatment to those that maliciously 
treat you. The discipline for perfect obedience is 
found in Abraham's obedience in leaving his kindred 
and country and going into a strange land; and 
again, when he was commanded to sacrifice his son, 
and so promptly obeyed. But the soldiers need dis- 
cipline to endure hardness. That is seen in Joseph 
being kept in prison unjustly so long, and how the 
Lord overruled it; and again, when Israel was in 
bondage so oppressive, but suffered the will of the 
Commander. But Christians are disciplined, or at 
what cost of disobedience is shown, by the Israelites 
not going over to possess the land when they were 
commanded to do so; -they died in the wilderness. It 
is shown again when the Midianites led them into 
disobedience, and the plague slew twenty-four thou- 
sand of them. But the discipline to trust for deliv- 
erance from danger, as at crossing the Red Sea and 
the river Jordan; the discipline to trust for suste- 
nance, as when they were fed by manna, and drank 



72 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

of the stream lhat flowed from the rock; the disci- 
pline to be perfect, pure, holy, and correspondingly 
strong; all that is seen in the utter extermination of 
the Canaanites, who represent the natural inhabi- 
tants of the human heart. These, like the Canaan- 
ites, must be utterl} 7 exterminated or no success. But 
it would be tedious to mentiou all the items that the 
Christian soldier finds in the Old Testament types; 
but in those types the discipline is perfect for the 
Christian ; and if there were no other use for the Old 
Testament, the Bible could not be perfect without 
this. But the unparallelled grandeur of it is, that 
any one item it was designed to show, was done as 
fully, as richly and grandly, as if there had been no 
other object to be reached but itself. But there were 
many other objects of equal importance to be accom- 
plished by the same scripture at the same time, and 
every one of them is accomplished as perfectly as it 
could have been, had it been the only one, noticed 
more in other chapters. The hand to hand fight did 
not commence during the four thousand years before 
Christ, but the forces were being drilled and prepared 
for action when the Commander should come to the 
field. 

Some persons tell us the Bible is not true; and a 
prominent part of their argument is, that the Com- 
mander of the right against wrong, gave commands 
in a few cases to make necessary example of treason, 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 73 

by commanding the utter destruction of the heathen 
from the land of promise; and also of the Midianites 
and the Amalekites and the people of Sodom. These 
cases were not simply to show the punishment of 
treason, but the really necessary exercise of discipline. 
This is so plain that none can be blind to these 
truths but those who will not see. These same per- 
sons will readily acknowledge that the commander of 
an army could not make a success if he did not exer- 
cise discipline closely; that without rigorous ruling 
any army would become ungovernable, disloyal, 
divided; and their better disciplined enemies would 
make an easy prey of them and their cause. If the 
Major Andres would come into the army of the revo- 
lution and conspire with the Arnolds to defeat and 
destroy the army, and the cause for which they fought,, 
and the General Washington in the case would give 
no attention to the treason and conspiracy, nor 
bring to justice the guilty parties within their reach; 
in such a case, these same objectors to the Bible would 
say such an officer ought to be put to death, and his 
example should be one of the most severe character. 
But here was a few cases of discipline, just enough 
to meet necessities and no more, but of millions fold 
more weight and importance than treason in a politi- 
cal army can be, and yet men of rational brain will 
condemn the Bible because of them. Oh, is consis- 
tency a jewel, and is common sense worth exercising? 



74 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

CHAPTER VIII. 

GOSPEL FAITH. 

The faith of the Gospel should not be considered 
dark or mysterious. Surely nothing in nature is more 
reasonable or logical, for the principle is seen in all 
pursuits of the world. If any person fully believes 
that Christ is more to him than all things else in 
nature, that person will be loyal to Christ with all the 
physical and mental power he possesses. The faith 
that does not make its possessor faithful is a decep- 
tion. Faith itself is without value or power or merit, 
but perfect loyalty to the Lord will produce the best 
and most faithful service that its possessor can ren- 
der; that which unites the servant to his Lord in the 
relation of father and son, or daughter, and the chil- 
dren are heirs to the father's possession. Hence, if 
faith saves its possessor, it does it on the logical prin- 
ciples of cause and effect. Loyalty or fidelity cannot 
be produced without faith in the object to which the 
party is loyal; neither can the loyalty be perfect 
when there is more than one object of faith. As the 
Lord has told us, we cannot serve God and mammon. 
Many come to a point in their history where Christ 
on the one hand, and the world on the other, invite 
their attention. Christ has many claims, and much 
to admire, but the world is here, visible, with all its 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 75 

charms and its necessities. To choose one is to reject 
the other, and the faith that governs the life must 
make the decision. Some see Christ in such excel- 
lency that their faith and heart and life decide 
entirely in his favor. Such sacrifice the world with 
all its prospects, its facinations, its pleasures. Their 
faith takes hold of Christ in perfect fidelity and loy- 
alty. This constitutes them God's people, and enti- 
tles them to his promise to be their God; Ezekiel, 
xxxvi:28; and each party is owned by the other party 
alike, with all they have, and with all they are. Now 
the adopted child recognizes his Lord's presence con- 
stantly. He fasts and prays and does his alms in 
secret, and his Father rewards him openly. It is 
cause and effect in every particular. If the Lord 
honors such individuals with some work that looks 
miraculous, it is in the clearest sense cause and effect. 
The Spirit makes the impression on the mind what to 
do or what to ask for, and the Lord does the work. 
The cause and the effect are plain alike, as when the 
five-year old child says, u Papa, lift me over the 
fence." The father reaches over the top of the 
fence and lifts the child over. Now, if the act of the 
child was seen, but the power not visible, the miracle 
would be as notable as those that the Lord performs 
by his faithful children. In all this there is no mys- 
tery. But faith is a mystery when one chooses the 
world but professes faith in Christ, yet never pos- 



76 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

sesses it, or never shows its fruits. Such persons 
boast of it oftener and more than those who do pos- 
sess it; and often kindle a fire and compass them- 
selves about with sparks. Isaiah 1:11 But our Lord 
has told us the fate of these. They will go deceived 
to the very judgment and tell the Lord they had 
prophesied in his name, and cast out devils, and done 
many wonderful works. But they will hear that 
awful word, "Depart, I never knew you," or ye that 
work iniquity. When faith is professed by them that 
choose the world it is a mystery, but the Christian 
should not suffer it to be called a mystery. 

In the very nature of things it is and ever was im- 
possible to save the fallen and sinful by any other 
means; justice would forbid it, for it is impossible to 
save the disloyal and be just; and there is nothing 
that can produce loyalty to Christ, or anything else, 
without faith in the object to which the subject 
should be loyal. Hence the faith that possesses and 
controls the entire heart and life for its Lord that 
unites its possessor to the spiritual body of which 
Christ is the head; and to be thus united, that is the 
salvation. 

Then God can be just and the justifier of him which 
believeth in Jesus ; and justice could not save on any 
other principle or condition . The whole subject may 
be fitly illustrated by considering all the pursuits of 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 77 

the whole earth. Whatever the plan that any intel- 
ligent mind puts into practice, it is faith that decides 
the kind of work to be done. 

There is no person engages in any thing until he 
believes that thing to be best for hiin, everything 
considered. Though some may not be pursuing the 
calling of their choice, yet in such a case, it is because 
there is something which prevents their doing so. 
Now that which they do is their faith, and it is known 
by their actions that it produces. But if circum- 
stances should change, so that some other calling 
would be more satisfactory to them, everything con- 
sidered, and their best judgment so decides, they are 
as sure to change as cause produces effect, and it is 
because their faith prefers the new to the old. The 
same principle holds good in the marriage relation . 
When two individuals join their destiny in marriage, 
both in good faith, they will be contented, and re- 
main so till death, if they remain in good faith to- 
ward each other. But if they grow weary of each 
other, and find some other that they prefer before 
their lawful companion, their affections will be divid- 
ed, and they will desire all obstacles to be removed 
that hinders them from changing companions; and 
when both parties are fully convinced that, every- 
thing considered, a change would be best, and their 
faith fully endorses the idea, they are as sure to make 
the change if they can, as the rain is sure to fall 



78 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

when it is discharged from the cloud. Just as logi- 
cally and as certainly, when people's faith takes hold 
of the Lord Christ, their service will be loyal and per- 
fect, and remain so until their faith in him fails. 

Now what has more common sense reason, or clearer 
logic than the Christian faith, Gospel faith, the faith 
that saves and the faith without which there can be 
no salvation? Let the whole earth blush to call it a 
mystery, or dark. The preacher who fills a high 
official place in church with a high salary, who studies 
only enough to perform the work assigned to him, 
and spends his time among the proud and worldly, 
that man cannot explain the Christian faith to his 
congregation. To him it is a mystery. But ask the 
perfectly devoted person, old or young, the meat and 
drink of whose spirit is to live and walk in the Lord, 
ask such an one to explain the nature of saving faith, 
and though he may not be ready to give a logical an- 
swer, he will be likely to give an answer that will 
embrace the sentiment herein described. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 79 

CHAPTER IX. 

REWARDS A]ST> PUNISHMENTS. 

They are the result of cause and effect. 

Nature of fire, spiritual. 

It is seen in this life. 

Fire and brimstone are figurative. 

The everlasting punishment, Math, xxv : 46. Is the 
doctrine mystery, or is it not the inevitables, result of 
cause and effect? For guilt as the fuel, feeds memory 
as the fire; and a sense of hopeless loss, with con- 
science as the gnawing worm that dieth not, shows 
that it was the willful choice of the subjects to fight 
against their Lord and his righteousness, and hazzard 
the consequences. The Lord's messengers that were 
sent to plead with them to accept life, whether the 
messenger was the word preached, or whether it was 
conscience, or the pleadings of friends, or the exam- 
ple of the righteous life, all were alike treated with 
contempt. The Almighty was mocked, and the ways 
of death were chosen in spite of God and man. Added 
to this must be of necessitv, the awful realization 
that this state is changeless and eternal. These fac- 
ulties, memory and conscience, are not physical, but 
they are faculties of the spirit, and cannot die nor 
cease to exist, and the Bible, as well as reason, teaches 
that material fire cannot affect the spirit; neither 



80 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

does the fire that preys on the spirit affect the mater- 
ial body, only as the spirit is more powerful than the 
material body. When the spirit is crushed or brok- 
en, the body often fails under it; but when the body 
fails, if the spirit is in favor with the Lord, produc- 
ing a good conscience, it will grow stronger while 
life endures. As fire and brimstone so signally affect 
the natural body the chief design of their existence 
in nature is to convey the idea that the spiritual fire 
will in like manner affect the spirit. For these logi- 
cal reasons, the everlasting punishment in the nature 
of things necessarily must be the effect of causes that 
the sufferers themselves have worked out, and for 
which there is no being in the universe responsible 
but those alone that suffer the penalty. 

Rev. vii : 9, 14 tell us of a great multitude that 
have washed their robes and made them white in the 
blood of the Lamb. These are the saved of the earth, 
and the reason why others are not saved is because 
their filthy robes were not washed. As the filth of 
those robes is of spiritual character, and the robe is 
the outer garment, it seems clear that the wicked ac- 
tions, and words, and influences, all wickedness of 
every kind that has filled up the life, will be seen in 
the robe, visible to the inhabitants of all worlds, 
which is the very nature of sin and wrong, showing 
that there is no power over, nor remedy for sin in the 
universe only the divine power, and no provision only 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 81 

that which Christ has made. Every sin of thought, 
word or deed of the whole life of those that reject 
the offer of mercy will be a spot in their robe, and 
every spot will show the crime that produced it. 
Hence all the sin of the world must be exposed to all 
the universe everlastingly. That will make good the 
fourth chapter of Mark, verse 22, and other passages. 
For there is nothing hid that shall not be manifested, 
neither was anything kept secret, but that it should 
come abroad. Here is the logical fulfillment of Dan- 
iel xii :2; Many of them that sleep in the dust of the 
earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some 
to shame and everlasting contempt. 

Now, inasmuch as the Lord has given certain special 
qualities to fire and has referred to fire to give an idea 
of the future state of the lost, there is then, the 
strongest support for the doctrine of the everlasting 
punishment in its most literal sense, and on the log- 
ical principles of cause and effect. As to the power 
that is given to the spiritual fire we cannot be certain. 
But the shame and everlasting contempt of the sin- 
stained robes, and the gnawing worm of conscience 
that dieth not, and the unquenchable fire of memory, 
with the realization that it is everlasting, must be 
sufficient to keep the fire of perdition kindled eter- 
nally. 



6 



82 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

There is the strongest evidence under our notice 
that these spiritual fires burn in the hearts and con- 
sciences of man} 7 people while they are in sound 
health physically to such an extent that they seek 
release from them by suicide, or self-murder. But 
with some the weight is so vast that it overcomes the 
powers of life, and they die. About the year 1847 an 
event occurred that startled the country and was pub- 
lished through eastern Ohio in a long and minute 
account, to the effect that a man inherited a large and 
desirable property by his marriage. His wife died, 
leaving an only child, a little son. The man died, 
leaving the charge of the son and the property with 
his brother, who v\as to put the child in possession of 
the property when he should come to legal agency; 
but if the child should die the brother would be heir 
to the property. That man found convenience to put 
the boy in the river with a stone hanged about his 
neck. But the act was seen, and eleven years after 
the deed was done, the witness and the criminal met, 
neither knowing of the other. The witness related 
the narrative to the criminal, and at the end of the 
narrative the criminal fainted. When he revived he 
made a full and minute confession of the crime. 
Three days after that he died, and by his death he 
escaped a criminal's execution. He could not endure 
the fire of the spirit. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 83 

Another case was published in Davis county, Indi- 
ana, A man committed murder, escaped from justice 
and could not be heard of. But nine years after the 
deed was done he returned, gave himself up, and con- 
fessed the crime. Verilv it is a fire that burns. I 
stayed half a year in Oakland with a friend. A daily 
published in Oakland came into the house at 7 p. m., 
giving most of the important news of the civilized 
world up to noon the same day. A morning sheet 
from San Francisco was brought at 7 A. m., giving 
most of the important events of the civilized nations 
up to midnight before. The striking feature of these 
daily papers was the great number of suicides that 
was published in them, and all of them traceable to 
the fire of the spirit as the cause of their self murder. 
Verily, it is cause and effect. That the nature of the 
fire is spiritual, and not physical, is clearly seen from 
the fact that the five physical senses die with the 
physical man and cannot live again. But the spirit, 
the essential part of man, is vastly more sensitive, as 
well as more powerful, than the physical nature, and 
the faculties of the spirit must of necessity possess a 
nature to convey all manner of intelligence to the 
spirit. The causes that produce misery or comfort to 
the physical nature cannot affect the disembodied 
spirit, such as cold or heat, or the sorrows or passions 
of earth. But like as the fire and brimstone produce 
quick, sharp sensations to the physical man, so will 



84 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

be the memory and the conscience to the sensitive 
spirit, memory an unquenchable fire, and conscience 
the worm that will gnaw without ceasing, yet never 
die. But these results of the spiritual fire on the 
spirit, are they not fixed laws in nature and not sub- 
ject to any power of annihilation? The essential use 
of fire and brimstone was to instruct man as to what 
did await the lost soul. The elements of punishment 
are inherent in the sin, and sinners who would not 
accept of their opportunity to be cleansed, but retain 
the sin, retain with it the elements of their punish- 
ment. So that the doctrine of the everlasting pun- 
ishment rests on the fixed laws of cause and effect 
as plainly as that cause will produce effect in any 
department of nature. 

There is not a rational minded being in nature that 
could say other than that the elements of wickedness 
should be separated from all the elements of purity, 
and when they are thus set off from all purity and 
confined to safe limits, themselves and their own na- 
ture from the elements of hell, and do literally justify 
all the language used in the scripture describing it. 
If these elements of wickedness would be suffered to 
roam through nature at will their ambition would be 
to contaminate every planet in the universe as they 
have contaminated this earth. 

"But the righteous into life eternal," and joy eter- 
nal, and purity and holiness eternal, and peace and 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 85 

happiness eternal, and the glory of their great Lord 
everlastingly. 

But those who stand on the right hand who go 
into life eternal, these will be the most distinguished 
part of the Lord's creation. They will be the vet- 
erans of the war, and the fellow soldiers and the 
fellow sufferers of the King of kings and Lord of 
lords. They will be brothers, sisters, mothers, of the 
great commander, and fellow heirs with him of all 
things. 

They w T ili be kings and priests, rulers of cities, and 
an endless monument of the power that brought 
them through a world full of sin with garments 
spotless and pure. These glorified ones will be an 
endless exhibition of the infinite wisdom that saw 
before creation the enemy that was in nature and or- 
dained such vast measures for its overthrow, and all 
attributes of the divine character will be glorified 
alike thereby. These holy ones will show their crea- 
tion, and their formation and their fall, and how they 
were redeemed and washed and made pure. They 
will be an endless record of the infinite power of their 
Lord that conquered yonder vast and terrible enemy, 
and has put it within prison bounds, and cut off its 
power to work destruction any more at all. And 
thus all worlds that revolve around the divine throne, 
the central point of the universe, when they see the 



86 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

nature and magnitude of the enemy, and see the com- 
mander and the soldiers that conquered their enemy, 
will they not exclaim, "Glory to God in the highest?" 
There is endless necessity for both the righteous and 
the wicked of this world everlastingly. They are not 
only philosophical, but an absolute necessity. 



CHAPTER X. 

DESIGN OF REVELATION. REASON FOR AND USE OF THE 

BOOK OF EEVELATIONS. 

If the most essential use of this book lies very far 
beyond the interests of this planet, and is very differ- 
ent from the benefit of the human race simply, never- 
theless its benefits and interests to the human race 
are none the less valuable, but are of as ranch value 
to man as if its sole use were for their benefit, and it is 
as worthy of fidelity, worship, praise, constancy, loyal- 
ity and devotion. 

We are informed in revelation that the book of 
nature reveals to man, light sufficient to make him 
responsible, and to lead him to the salvation of the 
Lord. Psalm xix. and Zeph. iii : 5, and Romans 
i : 19, 20, and also Job, and others, who knew the 
Lord without revelation. There are vast numbers of 
the human race that never see written revelation, and 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 87 

how few of those who have it who come up to its 
spirit and its letter! But those who do, to them the 
value is incalculable. But what a great proportion 
of those who have the Bible, show a depravity that 
they could not show without it? That will go with 
them into everlasting punishment, and be an endless 
exhibition that they chose the road to death with the 
Bible at their pleasure, when and as they chose, and 
thus will be shown the fruit of wrong in a way that 
could not be done otherwise. How much of this 
must the judgment reveal? How has the bible been 
treated in legislative bodies? How is it treated by 
the reading public, by the heads of families and in 
places of education? Do not the great mass of people 
of any age or sect, hold the Bible to their own con- 
demnation? And those who are numbered among 
Christians, how many of them read the Bible? When 
it is ridiculed and held up to the scorn and contempt 
of all present, who among those professing to believe 
it are ready to step forth and defend it? Most of 
them would defend their own character, but not the 
Bible and its author. But if their governor should 
send them a letter offering them money or property 
for its defense, would they be so indifferent about it? 
How many ministers of the Gospel are ready to meet 
the champion infidel, and by showing the strength of 
the Bible, put its enemies to shame? By the princi- 



88 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

pies of this Bible will all these persons be judged and 
when they are condemned they will say it is just. 

But notice the possibility, the probability, the likeli- 
hood, of its use in being held on exhibition everlast- 
ingly. All the Lord's creatures will likely be capaci- 
tated to read it, and know it, and it will be a revela- 
tion of the Lord to all his creatures forever. They 
will see him in all the attributes of his character, all 
maintained to infinite perfection. The saved of this 
world will see it and the last of this world will see it. 
But the countless myriads of worlds that have never 
fallen will likely read in revelation the character of 
their Creator. And of the vast warfare in which 
their great enemy was met and conquered, and that 
not one of these divine attributes was impaired or 
stained to the slightest possible extent. 

But when countless periods have gone by and the 
exhibition of this world shall grow dim in all created 
memory, and the inhabitants of worlds that had not 
fallen, shall look at the everlasting punishment and 
seem to wonder if justice could not release the sub- 
jects, then it shall be that revelation which is the 
record of their probation, and of how they insulted 
the offers of life will settle all inquiries. Beside that, 
these that are cast away are naturally, wickedly in- 
clined, while any and all other intelligences but them 
are naturally inclined to righteousness, and that is the 
great gulf which cannot be passed. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 89 

If the lost souls themselves should grow weary and 
be inclined to complain or excuse themselves, one look 
at this revelation would end all complaints, and they 
would be forced to say their sentence was just. But 
in the nature of things it required a physical world to 
make such a revelation as was made here. This being 
what the Lord designed to make — and he has told us 
that his word should not pass away — it necessarily 
was made in wisdom and for a use fully worthy of its 
author. Many thoughts may probably enter into the 
use of revelation, after the harvest of this world is 
gathered and sinning will cease forever. Think for 
a moment of the vast complication of the great war- 
fare, in which wrong in all its forms and magnitudes 
is overcome, and where wrong is punished with 
wrong, and wickedness is overcome by wickedness* 
and such a vast amount of wickedness is punished 
with temporal judgements. Has the Lord managed 
this sinful, warring world from first to last, and not 
used justice out of its legitimate place sometimes, in 
very extreme cases? Has mercy grown weak or failed 
toward any, or has the attribute of love never failed to 
act? Has not power, wisdom or truth been taxed to 
a disageable extent? Has the attribute of immuta- 
bility not changed under some possible cirumstances? 1 
How could it be possible that this vastly wicked^ 
treacherous world could be managed through from 



90 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

beginning to end, and none of these attributes be im- 
paired, or has the Almighty not the right by sovereign 
authority to use any or all of these attributes out of 
their place, under the pressure of extremely difficult 
circumstances? No! No!! Oh! No! he has not the right 
any more than a man has. The principles of right 
are self existent as deity, and there is no being in the 
universe that has the right to sacrifice the principles 
of right to the least possible extent. 

This book of revelation will show that everv one of 
these attributes ba& been preserved to infinite per- 
fection and this will be known and read of all the 
universe, through all the moving of eternity. This, 
with many other considerations, shows most conclu- 
sively that revelation could not be spared at any period 
of the future. There have been many opinions in- 
dulged in w r hen the seeming dark parts of the Bible 
were looked into. It has been said that the Lord 
acted on his sovereign power, on his sovereign 
authority, and that some works which the Lord has 
done were not, and could not be in harmony with 
other works that he has done. 

That is a slander. The Lord has never done a work 
in nature that would not have been right for a man 
to do, if the man had been capable of ruling, and the 
Lord had sent him to rule. On the self-same philos- 
ophical principles it was right for the Lord to do any 
thing and everything that he ever has done in nature. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 91 

The Lord does his work because it is right. But the 
fact that the Lord has done any work is not the cause 
of that work being right; but because his work was 
right, naturally and philosophically, and was neces- 
sary for the accomplishment of the ends of wisdom, 
that was the cause of his doing anything and all 
things that he did do. When we read that the Lord's 
words shall not pass away, Matthew xxiv : 35 and 
First Peter i : 25, and other passages, then let our 
feeble, limited minds think of the uses and the bene- 
fits of the volume of revelation ; to be of endless dura- 
tion revealing the Lord to all inhabitants of all worlds 
in all his infinite perfection and purity, the immov- 
able foundation on which the entire universe may 
safely rest and trust. Now if there were no other 
use for this world and the human race but to make 
revelation perfect, would it not abundantly justify 
the Creator for bringing this planet and human race 
into existence. Come, wise men, that requires logical 
reason for everything, come up and tell us, is not this 
philosophically grand, and fully worthy of infinite 
wisdom and all goodness? But the world does much 
more than to make revelation. 

Besides all this, can we suppose that our highest 
stretch of imagination can grasp any reasonable pro- 
portion of the benefits that the Lord's revelation will 
be to the Lord's universe during the endless future? 



92 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 



- CHAPTER XL 

AUTHENTICITY IS SELF EVIDENT. 

If the Bible is philosophical testimony to its own 
divine authenticity then it is reliable, but if it can 
not be shown up in that light it is not reliable. 

First. The Bible is in perfect harmony with all 
nature, and the book of nature proves the book of 
revelation to be true. 

Second. The Bible informs us that there was a 
war inaugurated in nature against an enemy before 
creation commenced, by ordaining the atonement, 
and all other necessities for the prosecution and com- 
pletion of that war, and the experience of this earth 
and the human race proves that to be true. 

Third. The Bible tells us that all things were 
created by the atoner, and our eyes behold the work 
of creation as the Bible tells us it was. The demon- 
stration is clear as it can be. 

Fourth. The Bible gives the account of the for- 
mation of this planet and its inhabitants, and we 
see it all. The testimony is clear. 

Fifth. The Bible gives the account that sin en- 
tered into the world and death by sin, and the exper- 
ience of every sane mind in the world see that to be 
a demonstrated fact as the Bible gives it. Sin and 
death are the experiences of our race. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 93 

Sixth. The Bible, in its combined passages, gives 
the idea beyond dispute that the origin of sin was 
that enemy against whom the war was inaugurated. 

These six items — the ground work of all ques- 
tions that can concern the human race — are all in 
perfect harmony with each other and with all other 
parts of the Bible, and with all nature, and are all 
sensible demonstrations to all men. No testimony 
can be stronger on any subject. 

Seventh. The Bible is the official records of a poli- 
tical government, written by legislative authority, 
and it is no more to the validity of its truth who the 
secretaries were that wrote it than the same question 
would be if the government journals of the United 
States were taken to another government to establish 
a legal point in law. But they have as strong claim 
to the legal acknowledgement of all political powers 
as the same records of any other government. 

Eighth. When the Bible is shown to be true phil- 
osopy, then the prophecies should be valid testimony 
to infidel as well as Christian, and there can be no 
stronger testimony, if one hundred reliable persons 
would testify to the same thing in any court, 
not so strong as prophecy and fulfillment. 

Ninth. When philosophy is seen to be perfect in 
the Bible, then the miracles are the strongest testi- 
mony that can be given on earth for anything. 



94 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

Tenth. When the Bible and the events it gives 
are shown to be absolute necessities in nature as is 
shown in these pages, and that neither the earth nor 
its inhabitants could exist on any other principles 
than those the Bible gives which are not only logical 
and reasonable, but absolute necessities to the very 
existence of planet or agent, then it is proved above 
any thing in any political point of view. 

Eleventh. The designs so visible in creation and 
all fulfilling the purposes for which the Bible says 
they were intended are the strongest possible testi- 
monies of its genuineness and also of its authorship. 
But notice a few other types somewhat different. 

Christianity sets up a system of perfect righteous- 
ness and all the language used to describe that prin- 
ciple or system is plain and easily understood, but the 
craftiness of worldly wisdom perverts it entirely in 
every particular. 

If we find that fourteen or fifteen centuries before 
the introduction of Christianity there was the politi- 
cal government of a nation administered by the 
author of Christianity, and such ability of wisdom 
and power was brought into that administration that 
it makes an unchangeable type of the Christian sys- 
tem which can not be perverted like the teaching by 
precept, and those types show the Christian system 
in every particular, that then would establish the 
divine authenticity of the Bible. Notice some of 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 95 

these types for it would be a weighty work to write 
all of them. 

These types show the posititive condition of the 
salvation of any man or all men, and in the teaching 
of them is involved the eternal destinies of this entire 
world. Now if these things are shown is there any 
more proof needed for the divine authenticity of the 
Bible? 

Commence with Abram, but afterward called Abra- 
ham. 

First. He was called to live a different life and he 
obeyed; so is the Christian and he obeys. 

Second. His faith was tried in the sharpest man- 
ner, and he obeyed. The Christian's faith is tried in 
the sharpest manner for him and he obe} 7 s. 

Third. When he was in a strange nation the 
monarch took his wife, but he trusted and the Lord 
rescued them both. When the Christian is imposed 
vpon by the wicked, if he trusts, the Lord helps them 
out of trouble. 

Fourth. The Lord promised him a land in which 
a kingdom should be set up for the Lord, the plainest 
type possible of the kingdom set up in the Christian's 
heart. 

Fifth. The son that was pomised was a type of 
the promised Son of God. 

Sixth. The offering of his son willingly was a 
type of the son that was offered in sacrafice for the 



96 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

sin of the world. How much is that type worth to 
this world? 

Seventh. The typical family went into bondage, 
and all that went out were born in bondage; so the 
whole human race is born under the bondage of sin. 
The type is perfect and valuable. 

Eighth. When the burden grows heavy and they 
crave for deliverance that is the convicted sinner. 

Ninth. When the Lord sent Moses to bring them 
out of heathen bondage it is the sinner's conversion 
from darkness to light. 

Tenth. When the blood of the lamb was sprinkled 
on the door and saved them it meant the atoning 
blood of Christ shed on Calvary. 

Eleventh. Eating the passover was the type of 
eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ 
spiritually. 

Twelfth. When they came to the Red Sea it is the 
type of the Christian, after conversion, coming into 
trouble, real or imaginary. 

Thirteenth. When they cry to the Lord and trust 
the sea divides and they go on, the fittest type possi- 
ble of the deliverance that Christians have received 
millions of times. 

Fourteenth. When they see their enemies de- 
stroyed the type is just as strong, for the Christian 
that conquers in this first conflict never sees the 
same enemy again. These are the Lord's promises 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 97 

to his people by types, and the whole nation makes a 
type that is not capable of being misunderstood nor 
misconstrued if the type is seen. The New Testa- 
ment gives us all these by words, but the words are 
preverted and their meaning utterly confouuded. 
Study the type and it cannot be confounded, and 
that is wherein they are so incalculably valuable. 

Fifteenth. After they passed over the sea and saw 
their enemies overcome, they sang a song to the 
Lord, and gave thanks, and uttered praises and 
brought their worship to their great deliverer. This 
is the fittest type that could be shown of the Chris- 
tian who seems to pass through extreme trials after 
his conversion, but trusts and finds himself safely 
through. He is filled with praises. 

Sixteenth. The falling of the manna to sustain 
the physical man is perfect type of the spiritual 
nourishment of the Christian. 

Seventeenth. The pillar of fire and the pillar of 
cloud to make the way plain and, for their defense. 
The knowledge of these is more the matter of exper- 
ience than the other types, so it seems to me. 

Eighthteenth. The smiting the rock that Israel 
might drink, how fully it represents the water of life 
that sustains the Christian. 

Nineteenth. When they came to Mt. Sinai and 
heard the commandments by the divine voice is this 
not a type of the Christian who has traveled the 
7 



98 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PKOBLEMS 

Christian path till he feels the need of instruction? 
He opens the Lord's book of revelations and finds 
both law and gospel proclaimed, and from thence 
forth is subject to all the injunctions of the scripture 
except the ceremonial part which cannot literally 
apply to the Christian, but do apply in their types. 

Aiter that the man Moses was called up into the 
mountain to receive the tables of the law and instruc- 
tions to build the tabernacle and all the typical things 
connected with it. The types of going into the 
mount, receiving the two tables, coming down and 
breaking them, and going back to obtain others. I 
am not sure that I see it all, but notice some of the 
plainer things. 

The tabernacle represents the Christian physically. 
It was composed of not very strong or permanent 
material, was often moved about, and contained 
many items. It also represented the Christian men- 
tally, being naturally dark and needing a constant 
supply of light. There was the golden candlestick 
with center shaft and six branches all the same 
height, and on them were seven sockets, each to hold 
a lamp. These seven lamps were trimmed and filled 
with the precious oils and lighted night and morning 
and were kept in the tabernale, burning constantly 
day and night. These lamps are types of the seven 
independent and essential attributes of the divine 
character, out of which every virtue and excellency 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 99 

proceed. The type is that these seven spirits of God 
Truth, Love, Power, Wisdom, Justice, Mercy and Im- 
mutability may, and should ever be, as brightly burn- 
ing lamps in the heart and life of every Christian. 
When it is not so, then the person in whom it fails 
is just so far below his privilege, and also his duty. 
Wh.311 these lamps are replenished, the oil or incense 
is burned on the golden altar, and kept constantly 
burning. That is the type of the constant spirit of 
worship, prayer and praise. 

With these there is offered a lamb sacrafice. That 
represents the Lamb of Calvary. All there together 
is the divine authority for the high privilege of fam- 
ily worship, and it is so clearly defined that all the 
talent on earth cannot throw a cloud over it if the 
type is held fast. There is much more of this. But 
now, man, Christian or infidel, civilized or savage, 
can the whole earth show stronger philosophy for 
anything? These types are the clearest conditions of 
the salvation or the condemnation. of the human race. 
The authorship of the Bible is established stronger 
than anything can be established by the sworn testi- 
mony of man. 



100 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 



CHAPTER XII. 



TRANSLATION. 



In the foregoing chapters have been considered 
these points of difference between philosophy and 
orthodox theology, in which the two seem to be hope- 
lessly irreconcilable; and also being shown those 
several points most important in theology which 
make the entire book of revelation harmonious, phil- 
osophical and clear. 

The design will now be to compare the several 
chapters of this writing, with all the dark or difficult 
passages in the Bible, and show that the Bible is not 
dark, but that true theology and true philosophy are 
at perfect agreement with each other. 

But have we any Bible? . And if we have, then 
have we any reliable translation of it into the English 
language? As there have been, and are many trans- 
lations, are there not some reasons, scriptural and 
logical, why one of these translations should be re- 
lied on to the exclusion of all the rest? If not, then 
we have nothing reliable. No reasoning can be wise 
if it has not a reliable foundation. But if we can 
find a solution of the disputed question that will show 
cause and effect on a fair line of reasoning until we 
find an authorized translation from the highest 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 101 

authority, then we may reason from it. The transla- 
tion of A. D. 1611, called the King James translation, 
will show this logical claim to superiority. It was 
made by forty-seven men, of competent scholarship, 
and integrity of character, all acting under legal 
authority of the soverignty of the government. The 
very design of the whole thing was to obtain a true 
and faithful translation of the original copy of the 
Old and New Testaments into the English language. 
These translators were hired and paid by their king, 
not to give their own opinions any weight in the 
entire work, but that the translated Bible should be 
perfectly the same as was the original copies from 
which it was translated; and if the scholars of that 
age had detected defections in that work, the trans- 
lators would have been liable to be called to an ac- 
count for unfaithfulness in their work. 

Another feature of this question is that the powers 
that be, are ordained of God, and King James the I, 
was not only ordained of God, but was as really under 
his control as any man that ever did contribute to 
the making up of the book of revelation, whether he 
was righteous or not. From these considerations we 
cannot reasonably regard the translation of A. D. 
1611 as anything less than a God-given translation, 
and it should be counted valid and not a word of it 
changed. 



102 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

In consideration of the vast number of the inhabi- 
tants of earth that use the English language, and of 
the probability of its use widening into other lands 
and becoming and remaining the most important 
language of the whole earth, nothing less than in- 
fidelity could doubt that the Lord did especially over- 
rule the King James translation of the scriptures. 

But the objectors come up with something of which 
they have just made the very valuable discovery; they 
have seen plainly that many words entering into nar- 
ratives or paragraphs of the scripture and giving it 
special significance, should have been rendered in 
other words, for in the original, the rendering used 
is quite a remote one, the first and second significa- 
tions having been omitted, and sometimes the fifth 
or tenth or some other one chosen. Any scholar can 
see that the first and plainest renderings have been 
passed by, and sometimes the most remote renderings, 
or nearly so, is inserted, and those objectors will tri- 
umphantly demand of the friend of our authorized 
version Vi What do you say to that?" Well, my 
answer is first, what do you think of yourself when 
you come to the front and do not seem to suppose 
that you are under any obligation to anyone, but you 
measure yourself up to those forty-seven translators 
and show without doubt that they are all wrong, and 
virtually say to the world and the church "Cast the 
rendering of those translators away as mistaken, in- 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 103 

correct and worthless, and take my rendering; I know 
more than all of them? True, they were under obli- 
gation to legal authority, and every text must under- 
go the closest scrutiny of the entire forty-seven, and 
receive the sanction of a majority, or, some say the 
sanction must be unanimous. But the advanced edu- 
cation of to-day shows that they are all wrong; I 
show you the clear truth in the case. My friend do 
you not feel a sense of shame at this point? My 
second answer is, the strength of the translation of 
A". D. 1611, lies in this: That fche translations, which 
have been made by self-appointed committees under 
no legal obligation, would exhibit the prejudices of 
the translators, who would not study long about the 
first and plainst rendering of any word in the original 
but would insert ttfe one having the most power in it, 
in a general sense, though perhaps very greatly to the 
confusion of the whole volume. If there were hund- 
reds of the translators, and they were the best schol- 
ars in the world, the fact would only give them the 
stronger assurance in their self righteousness. But 
this committee of forty-seven men, under the author- 
ity of their legal soverign, who paid for their time, 
and required truth that would abide the inspection of 
all the future, such committee could not insert the 
first and plainest rendering without quite another 
qualification, which was as to whether it would make 
the sense of the original copy perfect in the transla- 



104 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

tion. If the first will not, then will the second, or 
will the third, or will the fourth, or the tenth, or the 
fifteenth? 

Like the prophet, Samuel, when he was sent to the 
house of Jesse to anoint a king, and all the sons who 
were present were brought before the prophet, all 
good looking, but all rejected. What will be done 
now? Why search till the right one is found, and 
though the shepherd boy was not so likely looking, 
yet he was the one taken. 

In like manner, these forty-seven translators must 
find a rendering that would perfectly show the same 
meaning as that contained in the original copies and 
if they passed ninty and nine that would not make 
the perfect translation of the old into the new, reject 
them, and if one can be found perfectly fitting to the 
purpose required, take it, though it might be but lit- 
tle used, take it. 

Another important item in favor of the translation 
of A. D. 1611 is, that it shows perfect harmony in 
every part of it with every other part of it, and the 
same harmony with all nature, but any change that 
would affect the meaning would make confusion. 
The reason a new translation is ever wanted is because 
people do not stop long enough in life's hurry to see 
the clearness of philosophy that is in and all through 
the Bible, as it is. This pamphlet must be proven to 
be in conflict with the Bible, or it must be acknowl- 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 105 

edged that the King James translation shows the 
brightest philosophy in the Bible, that there is in 
nature, but if that translation is moved at any point 
it will darken its brightness. In the light of that 
translation, the Bible shows the origin of all things, 
and a necessary reason why all things in nature are 
as they are, both the good and the bad, the past, the 
present and the future. It shows the necessity of 
letting sin reign in the earth as we see that it does r 
and has done, and also shows the indispensible neces- 
sity of future rewards and punishments. This philos- 
ophical clearness connects the entire Bible, and to 
disturb it at any one point, will disturb it in its rela- 
tive proportion in all of its parts. It is clearly mani- 
fest that the very passages that men wish to have 
changed to show their idea of the Bible, plainly would 
do what they wish to have done, but it would intro- 
duce into the Bible a confusion that would be hope- 
lessly irreconcilable. Neither the church nor the 
world can afford to have that translation touched. 
But another idea, not at all insignificant, is that it is 
the indispensible duty of the Christian people of the 
earth to try and prove and search until they find a 
translation that will prove true under the scrutiny of 
all ages, and all enemies. There is but one that is 
capable of enduring such an ordeal, and the author- 
ized version will hold good in the light of reason, or 
testimonv. But these assertions are made, and held 



106 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

only on the points of theology, and the general ar- 
rangement of this pamphlet. They cannot be held on 
the common orthodox theology. Our translation and 
the Bible that it translates are alike, all God given, 
and perfectly reliable. 

But if this is to be a scrap chapter we introduce 
another thought somewhat different. In the fore- 
going item the word u theology " was applied to this 
pamphlet. 

In view of the great amount of writing on theology 
by all denominations, if some one would see the term 
theology apblied to this writing, the reader might 
think that the writer was a full-fledged egotist. 

But what is the meaning of the word theology? 
The religious denominations of the world put their 
denominational holdings into writing, as to the doc- 
trines they require their members to acknowledge and 
support and the religious duties they are to observe. 

Such a work is the theology of the people that 
issues the work. If they were all collected, and read 
by the same person, they would leave the reader 
where he could not successfully deny that there are 
real difficulties in parts of the Bible. 

It has been the burden of my heart for years to see 
the book of life, the light of the world, the hope of 
the world, even the Bible, raised up from under this 
slander; and now I request, my orthodox brother or 
sister, or my infidel neighbor, that }^ou scrutinize 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 107 

these twelve chapters closely in the light of truth 
and in the sight of a heart-searching judge, and then 
compare them with the Bible, and if the fair solution 
of the Bible will condemn this pamphlet, then let it 
be condemned. But if in the light of truth and 
scripture, and reason, the pamphlet cannot be con- 
demned then let the slander be removed, the infidel 
answered at every point, and the Bible be the most 
philosophical book on earth. 

THE PHILOSOPHY OF PRAYER. 

Prayer is philosophical as day and night. It is the 
petition of the spiritual soldier for army supplies. In 
all secular warfare all military supplies are furnished 
for the soldiers by the power they serve. 

But the spiritual warfare is of more weighty im- 
portance than all the secular wars of the world from 
first to last, and the means adopted for supplying the 
spiritual army is that every soldier personally petition 
the commander for personal supplies and receive 
them. If the same thing is wanted by a number, let 
them all join the petition, whether together or separ- 
ate, send up the verbal petition and receive what 
they ask, petition largely and receive largely and be 
strong and overcome. The secular soldier meets arms 
with the same kind of arms, but the spiritual soldier 
meets and must meet all visible arms that can be 
brought against him, not with visible arms, but with 



108 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

the spirit of his Commander, overcoming evil with 
good. 

The very nature of the spiritual warfare is that 
the divine attributes are the arms of the spiritual, 
and in the hands of the soldier of the cross must over- 
come every principle or practice that is in opposition 
to them. If the soldier is hated, let him overcome it 
with love. If men abuse him, pray for them. Over- 
come evil with good, and wrong with right, and hatred 
with love. This requires a strength of character that 
the secular soldier has not the slightest conception 
of. It requires a firmness of purpose that puts its 
possessor above the world. These wants can only be 
supplied by petitions to the Commander for the need- 
ful supplies. These petitions, when properly pre- 
sented, cannot fail to be complied with, and the want 
supplied, and the want to be supplied is so vastly more 
than the wants of the secular soldier can be. The 
philosophy of prayer is indisputable. The soldier of 
the cross is ready to be hated of all men for His 
name's sake, or to have his name cast out as evil, and 
suffer any kind of abuse, and rejoice that he is count- 
ed worthy to suffer shame for His name. 

The political soldier receives his supplies through 
many hands, and by written communications. But 
if the spiritual soldier received his in that way he 
might and often would be cut off. 

His Commander knows the whole situation, and 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 109 

confers the supply to the petitioner directly. But 
these vast effects that the soldiers of the cross accom- 
plish could not be reached if the soldiers would be 
careless and neglect to ask for their supplies. 

Hence it is seen that prayer as a privilege is logical 
as any thing in nature. 

A DEEP QUESTION. # 

How can justice be indemnified in the- creation of 
men with a perfect knowledge of all the results of. 
their creation, the knowledge that their existence 
should be endless, that they must endure the conse- 
quences of their probation, though short and uncer- 
tain, (as human life.) but after death holding them 
in existence everlastingly, and that if they die in sin 
they must remain in hopeless dispair of relief? Is 
not this irrevocable decree doctrine in its fullest 
force? No, it is not, for it does not depend on a 
decree, but upon a necessity in nature, that this 

world should accomplish the warfare for the annihi- 
lation of the power of the great enemy of the 

universe, and for securing peace and safety to all the 

Lord's vast empire throughout the endless future. 

It was the pre-requisite of creation. 

Justice is indemnified again from the fact that the 

Creator furnished the agents with ample means of 

self defense so that they need not be hurt by the 

enemy except they chose to be. No more could be 



110 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

done for their defense without destroying their 
agency. But agency is a real necessity for man to 
accomplish the obj°ct for which the natural necessity 
required his existence. 

A third indemnity is that there is, bv a fixed law 
of nature, a principle inherent in agency the princi- 
ples of happiness or of misery that depends on the 
agent. If mentory and conscience, both deathless 
faculties of the soul, are burdened with guilt, it will 
be to the disembodied spirit like as fire and brimstone 
to the physical nature, (Bible teaching). But if 
these faculties of the spirit are found to be redeemed, 
pardoned, washed, pure and holy, and with a recon- 
ciled Savior, that will be heaven to them. It is then 
clear that these destinies depend on cause and effect, 
and the causes are all in the power of the agent 
alone, for the Creator has done all that the Creator 
could do to save every one who is an agent. 

The Lord says, Ezekel xviii:32, "I have no pleasure 
in the death of him that dieth, saith the Lord God; 
wherefore turn yourselves and live." See verse 23^ 
See chapter 33 and verse 11. And 1st Timothy ii:4; 
" Who will have all men to be saved, and to come to 
the knowledge of the truth." And 2d Peter iii:9, 
" Not willing that any should perish, but that all 
should come to repentance." 

Our redeeming Lord could weep over Jerusalem 
like one who had made all provisions for the comfort 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. Ill 

of his family, but his children would reject his coun- 
sels and go off to the wilderness, and some froze to 
death, and others be found so frozen that their limbs 
must be amputated, and others perish with hunger. 
The parents could cry over them, and renew their 
counsels to them, but could not control them. The 
Almighty does not lack the power to control His 
creatures, but power is in debt to justice, for justice 
suffered the creation of all things on credit. Power 
made a decree that the enemy should be overcome, 
and its power destroyed so soon as created nature 
could be sufficiently developed to accomplish that 
vast work. Hence the Lord, even the Almighty, is 
under bonds to justice to finish that vastest work in 
nature, and to make it perfect. Sympathy and love 
are not dead toward sinners, but justice requires that 
they must be suffered to choose their course in life.. 
They may be warned, admonished, induced, plead 
with, wept over, but justice forbids them to be 
coerced from their voluntary agency. 

Closely allied to the above question and answer, is 
another question that has seemed to be dark to some 
people, and seemed strong in the hands of the infidel. 
That is, how can truth be indemnified in the offer of 
life and salvation to the entire human race, if the 
Creator knew from the beginning who would, and 
who would not, accept the offer of life and be saved ? 
The answer is like unto the other answer in part, but 



112 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

in addition to that some other thoughts belong to 
this question, such as that the knowledge did not de- 
pend on any ruling of the Lord over the agent, for 
every one could and must make his own independent 
choice. Neither was it because the same provision 
was not made for those who are lost as there was for 
those who are saved. All were redeemed alike, and 
it was and is impossible that any could be lost who 
were not redeemed. The throne must appear perfect 
and unimpeachable. Bat the knowledge was the 
result of the infinity of the Divine nature, of His 
infinite wisdom and knowledge, His infinite perfec- 
tion. 

It is shown beyond cavil that the Lord possessed 
the most absolute power over all demons, snd they 
well knew that fact; but He suffered them to go on 
with their work and fill the world with influences 
favorable to seduce men into their service. The Lord 
used influences to induce men to righteousness, not 
to compel them., but to persuade them, that the enemy 
never could complain of a lack of facilities for the 
success of His cause, fully equal to those against 
Him. 

But with truth and love, power and wisdom, justice 
and mercy, and immutability is the Lord's warfare 
carried to a successful issue, all showing that His 
purpose was not to prevent sin, but to overcome it. 
Now here is a solution of these dark questions that 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 113 

is scriptural and logical, reasonable and true, one 
that infidelity cannot move from the hands of 
Christianity, but the Christian can subdue the infidel 
with it on his own ground with his own weapon. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

TOPICS OF CHAPTERS AND REMARKS. 

1. In the first chapter the first item shows testi- 
mony in nature to prove the existence of the God of 
the Bible, and it is proven to a demonstration. 

2. The second item considers the attributes of the 
character of the God of the Bible, and proves it by 
the Bible. 

3. The third item shows atonement decreed before 
creation and proves it by the Bible. 

4. The fourth item shows that sin could not orig- 
inate from creation, and is proven in proving the 
other items, as well as by such passages as these: "As 
I live saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the 
death of the wicked," and <; Why will ye die?" 

5. The fifth item shows the origin of sin was a 
principle in nature eternal as the attributes, and the 
combination of all these chapters establishes it, and 
revelation does not dispute, but does support it. 

6. The sixth item shows the work of creation 
8 



114 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PKOBLEMS 

barred until provisions were secured to bring that 
power of sin to a final end. These appropriations 
were the atonement, and a suitable race, and a suita- 
ble planet for the war against sin. Now when it is 
seen that there is not a hint in the Bible against this 
solution but a very great deal to support it. Then it 
is proven. The warfare commenced with the fall of 
man. There was enmity put between the serpent and 
the woman. <l It shall* bruise thy head, and thou 
shalt bruise his heel.' 1 But when Christ came, he 
says, "I beheld Satan as lightning falling from 
heaven. 1 ' And again, ' c When a strong man armed 
keepeth his palace his goods are in peace: but when 
a stronger than he shall come upon him and over- 
come him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein 
he trusted, and divideth his spoils." " And thou hast 
ascended on high, thou hast led captivity captive." 
And also, " That through death he might destroy him 
that had the power of death, that is the devil. " " And, 
having spoiled principalities and powers he made a 
show of them openly, triumphing over them in it." 
Scripture proof is abundant that the object of this 
world is a warfare. 

7. The seventh item illustrates the warfare, and 
the necessity for everything that enters into it by the 
war of insurrection in the United States. 

8. The eighth item asks the reason why infinite 
goodness suffers this world to sin so much and so long r 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 115 

and many items of proof may be found for this. But 
the Creator being perfect in all his attributes, and 
the fact that we see the element of wickedness in the 
world, are all sufficient, and abundant proof that the 
world is doing the work that it was designed to do, 
and until it has closed its warfare, and finished the 
mission assigned it, the conflict must go on. But 
then will be an end of sin. Dan. ix:24. 

The first chapter gives the elements of reason in 
many of the passages and parts that have been con- 
sidered dark and mysterious, as why the atonement 
was decreed before creation, and it also shows the 
necessity of decreeing this planet, and the human 
race in connection with the atonement. The indem- 
nity of the lamps required it. 

Chapter II. But in the second chapter there is 
some light needful to be brought at some points, and 
the chapter shows that light, discriminating between 
creation and formation, and showing harmony in 
both. The chapter that illustrates creation is logic- 
ally proven by scripture, and by reason and by all 
nature, and has its prominent place in showing clear, 
logical reason in all the Bible. 

Chapter III treats of formation, and is a third link 
in the chain of clear logical reason in the entire book 
of revelation. It is clearly proven by its connection 
with first and second chapter, and the passages that 
treat of formation, and its relation to creation. 



116 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

Chapter IV treats of the origin of sin, and shows 
a plain common sense solution of that hitherto dark 
and mysterious problem. Any theology that I have 
considered fails to show the divine attributes perfectly 
clear of any and all complicity with the authorship 
of sin. Both reason and revelation agree that even 
the omnipotent Creator could not do anything con- 
trary to an}' one of these attributes. But this fourth 
chapter is self-evident truth and is a solution of all 
mysteries that were thought to be involved in it. Tt 
is in harmony with all the Bible, and strongly sup- 
ported by many passages. 

Chapter V treats of the fall, and shows philosophy 
and harmony in itself, and in all the Bible before it 
occurred. It is proven by scripture and philosophi- 
cal reason and clearness. 

Chapter VI treats of the warfare, showing it to be 
in perfect harmony with all nature, and revelation, 
and with the clearest philosophy and the experience 
of the world. 

Chapter VII treats of the types of the old testa- 
ment, showing them to be not only philosophical, 
but real necessities in nature, and to enter into the 
conditions decreed to be fulfilled, without which crea- 
tion could not proceed. There were also other neces- 
sities, such as disciplining the Christian army. These 
types also show the pathway of the Christian in a way 
that cannot be turned aside by men's words. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 117 

These seven chapters show philosophical clearness 
on all dark points, from the first dawn of intelligence 
the Bible gives us, until the close of the old testa- 
ment, and take all strong holds from infidelity. 

Chapter VIII treats of gospel faith, and shows it 
to be philosophical as cause and effect in any topic in 
nature. The proof is, that it is so self evident that 
none who will look at it, can fail to see it. Another 
proof is that no word in scripture disputes it, and 
still another is that all the scripture supports it, as 
well as all nature. 

Chapter IX treats of rewards and punishments 
showing the scripture to be perfectly philosophical, 
and that there also were necessities in nature, like all 
other things connected with the warfare of this earth. 

These nine chapters set all the Bible in a clear, log- 
ical, reasonable light. 

Chapter X treats of the design of revelation and 
brings to view a faint glimpse of the possible uses for 
which the Lord's book of revelation was designed, and 
the objects of wisdom and necessity that it may 
accomplish at all periods of the endless future. 

Chapter XI treats of the authenticity of the scrip- 
ture, a self-evident fact, clearly demonstrated by such 
a cloud of witnesses. 

Chapter XII treats of the authorized translation of 
A. D. 1611, proving that we have a reliable transla- 
tion, and that proves that we have a reliable Bible. 



118 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

The word on theology shows that it is necessary to 
find harmony and reason in all the scriptures before 
theology can claim to be up to its reasonable necessi- 
ties. 

These twelve chapters involve a few general re" 
marks or thoughts of a general character. 

First. There is one self-existent being and only 
one. 

Second. That self-existent personage possessed 
every attribute of character that is needful to accom- 
plish all goodness to the fullest extent of the word, 
but didn't possess any attribute that was capable of 
doing wrong, and could not be the cause of wrong or 
evil. 

Third. The origin and the producing cause of all 
sin, and all evil and wrong of every kind or character, 
was, and is, an uncreated principle in nature, not a 
person or being capable of voluntary action. Its 
natural tendency was and is its powers, it was and is 
the antagonist of all the goodness of the divine char- 
acter, but inferior to that and could not be developed 
until creature life would exist. But an intelligent 
agent could not exist where that teudencyor tempta- 
tion toward wrong could not reach it. Hence the 
warfare for the utter extermination of that power. 

Fourth. To make a perfect work in this warfare 
requires a vast amount of work that pure hands and 
pure hearts could not do, neither the Lord nor his 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 119 

soldiers. But the wicked of the world and their lead- 
er can do that kind of work and it will not hurt them, 
as when our Lord was betrayed, and when he was 
crucified, and when his soldiers conquered by a mar- 
tyr's death. 

%i 

Fifth. The called and chosen and faithful of the 
Lord are his soldiers and cannot seek their reward in 
this world, nor their rest, nor their honor, nor their 
wealth, nor their comfort, but like their Lord and 
commander, contend with spiritual weapons only 
until death is the crowning act of their warfare. 

Sixth. No prophecy of the scripture is of any 
private interpretation, but it contains the elements 
within itself for its own philosophically, reasonable 
and unconquerable defense, and for putting the dis- 
puter to shame at every point. 

No person can aspire up into that light and excel- 
lency of the Bible to which it is his privilege to as 
pire, ^until he sees it in its clear logical light; for 
until it is so understood it is held in weakness and 
dishonor. 

Seventh. There is no ground for the apology that 
some make for being at ease in Zion while the heath- 
en say, " Where is your God?" and defy them to show 
philosophy in the Bible. Ministers and laymen 
answer that if we could see the reason for all the 
Bible, we would be wise as its author and would not 
serve him. This is more monstrous than for a man 



120 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

to undertake to swim across the Pacific Ocean at the 
widest point, if he swim at all. But to acquire a 
logical knowledge of the Bible is but the threshold 
of Bible investigation, and the farther one investi- 
gates the more exhaustless the field of thought 
will appear. 

Eighth. From the general tenor of these Bible 
interpretations it is fearful to consider the moral re- 
lation and condition of all the element of church as 
well as the world in the light of Bible teaching. 
Take from all church relation all that the Bible con- 
dems, worldliness and selfishness, pride and vanity* 
and how large a proportion remain? The Bible is 
all the light we have on that subject. 

Ninth. These twelve chapters are a theological 
solution of all dark passages of the Bible, and from 
the interpretation these chapters make, any and all 
questions that can arise out of the dark parts of the 
Bible, find their philosophical definitions clear, logi- 
cal, forcible answers. 

Tenth. Any system of theology that leaves dark- 
ness and mystery in the Bible is imperfect and should 
be improved until no one would think of a dark rev- 
elation. 

Enough has been said to make these pages plain to 
any person who might peruse them; for I am con- 
vinced that any subject may be made to seem dark by 
an extravagant amount of writing or argument con- 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 121 

cerning it. By this means the Bible appears to be 
the darkest book on earth, to the millions, to whom 
it should seem very full of light, and very easy to see 
its excellence at every point. 

Tf these chapters will, on the closest scrutiny, be 
found to agree with all the Bible, and the Bible agree 
with all of them, then I cannot see why my task is 
not done. I now wish to commence at the first of 
the Bible and go through to the last of Revelation, 
and notice all the strongholds of infidelity, and com- 
pare them w T ith these chapters, and attempt to show 
that there is not a dark passage in the Bible; nor is 
there a collision in it; nor a narrative that logical 
reason can spare; but there is just enough to make a 
work of philosophical, self-evident truth of divine 
origin so clearly reliable that the whole world may 
rest their salvation on its teachings, and meet all its 
enemies with arguments perfectly unconquerable. 

Before we commence the comparison of these chap- 
ters with the Bible let one inquiry be suggested as to 
whether it is the privilege and the duty of the church 
and of the world, or of every individual, to investi- 
gate the Bible respecting its philosophical and logical 
clearness. Is it the duty of any accountable agent to 
submit to the investigation and interpretation of any 
man," or organization of men that ever did or ever 
can exist, and pass through life content with that 
which others give them concerning the account they 



122 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

must give to their final judge? I know there is a 
yast amount of teaching in various organizations 
that point in that direction. This kind of economy 
is the strength and the life of the church of Rome. 
It is fed to the children early as they can catch the 
ideas, and grows with their growth, and strengthens 
with their strength. This is their power and their 
tyranny, for it is conceded that the mass must every 
one prepare for himself his answer, when he shall 
give account of himself to God, and that it is the 
privilege as well as the duty of all who can read to do 
so, and to search for themselves, that would be the 
downfall, and utter ruin of the entire moral struc- 
ture of this church, of its magnificent and costly 
cathedrals and of its imposing authority and tyranny. 

A number of Protestant organizations occupy very 
similar ground, and seem to think it vastly extrava- 
gant to suggest that the scripture can be philosoph- 
ically understood and logically explained. However 
pure the organization may be in its origin, neverthe- 
less if it acquire popularity and wealth and power, 
and becomes numerous, yet still holds to the idea that 
the Bible is dark and mysterious, it will as naturally 
glide into speculation and tyranny as did the church 
of Rome. 

Sometimes objections are set up against the investi- 
gation of the Bible in the light of reason, for they 
say men of great education and opportunities have 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 123 

said these vast topics are too deep for the human 
capacity to reason out. They refer to Deuteronomy, 
xxix:29, which reads thus: a The secret things 
belong to the Lord our God; but the things which are 
revealed belong to us and our children forever, that 
we may do ail the words of this law." 

Are the secret things here spoken of found in the 
book of Revelation, or has the Lord designed that the 
topics brought to view in the revelation he makes to 
the minds that he has ordained shouldn't be under- 
stood by those minds? Who could answer in the 
affirmative? But if that which the Bible reveals is 
that which belongs to us and our children, then what 
and where are the secret things if they are not found 
in the Bible? I answer, what is there in nature that 
the Bible does not reveal which is not a mystery? 
Who can fully solve the problem of sight, or of hear- 
ing, or of any of the five senses, or of the flower of 
the grass, or the grass, or the leaf of the forest, or a 
cup of water, or the grain of sand, or the bite of 
bread, or any other item in nature that the eye looks 
on, small or great? Hence what we have in the 
Bible is revealed and not past finding out; but that 
which the Bible has not revealed is mystery, and the 
number of those mysteries is utterly countless. But 
the scripture says, t{ Great is the mystery of Godli- 
ness." So it is; and the passage tells us in what 
respect it is great. But Godliness is not the Bible; 



124 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

neither is it said the Bible is mystery. The Bible 
reveals why these mysterious things are so, and what 
they were for, and that is not any longer a mystery. 

But the question is now with me, in the sight o£ 
the seacher of hearts, dare I publish these chapters 
in view of all the world, and the church holding that 
the Bible is not to be understood in a logical sense, 
or a philosophical light? 

Infidelity has become so bold as to fill the princi- 
ple cities fromBoston to San Francisco with its poi- 
son, and challenge the whole earth to dispute its 
ground. In every case where the ministry has pro- 
duced a written reply, infidelity has held the victory 
on their strong point, namely, that the Bible could 
not be defended in the light of reason. 

I read a book with title of u Mistakes of Ingersoll,' ' 
in which there were published about, I think, twenty- 
seven replies to his infidel lectures in Chicago. Some 
of these I thought were strong as could be made from 
orthodox ground, but the strong hold was not broken 
up, nor even tried. The next I heard of it, was in 
the fall of 1887, when Dr. Field, of New York, intro- 
duced a controversy with R. J. Ingersoll, and in 
many small points, like several others, he held com- 
plete victory over the infidel argument. But, like 
others, he did not meet the strong hold, and the ad- 
vocate of the Bible stood second best. I could not 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 125 

but suppose that the infidel argument could not be 
met by orthodox theologians. 

But I understood that the Rt. Hon. W. E. Glad- 
stone, of British government notoriety, had published 
a criticism on the Field and Ingersoll discussion. I 
obtained the article and read it. I suppose I should 
read an article directly to the point, from a man of 
mind, not second to any man now living, and al- 
though I thought that a few others had made 
as good an effort as orthodox theology could make, 
yet Mr. Gladstone took a course somewhat different. 
I thought to take other good arguments with his, 
that they did about, if not entirely exhaust the argu- 
ment that could be made from orthodox ground. 
But I found by reading the article that this mystery 
was most signally acknowledged. It was published in 
the North American Review of May, 1888. Pages 402 
and 403 leave room to think the point conceded that 
a possible item of Christianity could be used as an 
argument against itself. 

On page 484 he lends logical consistency to the de- 
fense of error; this should not be done. Page 491, 
no ground for assuming evolution and revelation to 
be at variance with each other. Now, in the eyes of 
most readers that will show his interpretation of the 
word evolution quite too near to Mr. Darwin's inter- 
pretation. 

Page 495. He does not deny that the methods of 



126 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

divine government present to us moral problems, in- 
soluble to our understanding. 

Pages 496 and 497. He acknowledges that belief 
should be defended only by such rules of investiga- 
tion as common sense teaches in the common conduct 
of life, but then concedes the point that we have no 
right to denand demonstrative proofs, or the removal 
of all conflicting elements, either in the one sphere 
or the other. There are more notable words in this 
criticism but I forbear further notice. 

In the ages when the Old Testament was written, 
the most of its meaning was dark to the people whose 
history it gives us. The very design of these Old 
Testament writings were to make types that should 
be light and law for all the future of earth's history, 
to make a perfect discipline for the army when the 
commander should take the field, and to perfect rev- 
elation, all of which it accomplished to the letter. 

The people obeyed then without knowing why, but 
the Lord had demonstrated himself to them in so 
many ways, and so frequently, that the heavy penal- 
ties made them choose to obey, although they were 
blind to the reasons why. 

But the antitype made his appearance and fulfilled 
the types, and completed his mission, and sent the 
comforter, the spirit of truth, purity and light. After 
that we read from Paul that the things that had been 
kept secret in the divine mind were now made known. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 12T 

Bph. iii:9 and Col. i:26 and 2 Timothy i:10. When 
the apostle Johnlwas moved to write his epistles, in 
the first chapter he declares that God is light and in 
him is no darkness at all. All his word is light, and 
all his work is light, and all his designs touching the 
human race are now brought to light, and in him is 
no darkness at all. 

With shrinking heart and trembling hand I write 
that it is my design to expose these thoughts in print 
to the public eyes in the name of the Lord. 

The criticism of the Bible may be commenced by 
noticing the clearness of the testimony that the first 
three chapters of the Bible bear to the design for 
which the world and the human race were brought 
into existence, namely, for the warfare. The first 
three chapters of Genesis show the work of creation 
all very good. 

The work of formation was good, and all continued 
good up to the third chapter and sixth verse, but in 
that verse is the account of the first act of disobedi- 
ence, and then follows the immediate consequences 
of that act. For in that act man died, spiritually,, 
and was no more very good, and the ground was 
cursed for man's sake, with all its productions, and the 
thoughts and imagination of man's heart as well. 
Chapter 6, verse 50. All the labor of His hands, 
and everything in the earth is brought under the 



128 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

power of wrong, by the first wrong act, which de- 
veloped the enemy of the entire universe which is 
wrong as a principle. This seems the dark mystery 
of the developments of nature. But when the 
source of infinite goodness dwelt in boundless space 
alone, possessing all faculties for the production of 
all righteousness, yet not capable of wrong in any 
way, wisdom saw that wrong was possible, and possi- 
bility is the first condition of anything that does 
exist. But the onward movings of nature bring 
possibility into probability, and when these both 
exist then the movings of nature develops them into 
reality. Hence it is plain that possibility was the 
enemy in nature that must be overcome before any- 
thing could be created that it was possible to defile 
and ruin. Hence, infinite power put itself under 
bonds to justice that this possibility in nature to sin 
should be utterlv overcome so soon as nature could 
be sufficiently developed for the accomplishment of 
that vast work. 

But that work required the warfare, and the war- 
fare required the commander and the atonement 
which the perfect God-head alone could make. 
Hence, the propriety and the absolute necessity that 
power should suffer the enemy to obtain possession 
of the entire theater of war that the subjugation 
might be complete, as shown in the chapters. In 
the scrutiny of the Bible the warfare will be the 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 129 

primary or leading thought, though subordinate 
thoughts will be brought out in some places, but all 
is considered subject to the one great object of the 
world's existence, which is the subjugation of the 
enemy, the warfare. The book of Revelation enters 
into the warfare and is a prominent part of the 
means used for the subjugation of the enemy, and to 
hold that enemy in perfect subjection everlastingly. 
All of this is shown in the introductory chapters, 
but this leading thought needs to be held in any and 
all parts of the scriptures. These views of the 
Bible show harmony, consistency and truth in the 
entire Bible, but to reject these views deprives it of 
all of them. 

GENESIS. 

Genesis i:l, 4t Iti the beginning Grod created the 
heaven and the earth. And the earth was without 
form and void." These expressions prove that the 
words " created "and u made," as .used in the first 
chapter, did not nor could not convey the idea that 
formation was connected with creation. But as it is 
shown in chapters two and three of this writing, 
creation meant the legislation of the work and for- 
mation was the execution of the same work. The 
first chapter treats of legislation only, but nothing 
w T as brought into existence by virtue of creation, nor 
would anything exist until wisdom required it for 
9 



130 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

useful design, and then it would be formed. It is 
neither certain nor likely that all that was created in 
the beginning had been formed or has an existence 
yet. If a new planet should be seen it was never- 
theless created in the beginning. When the earth 
was formed, it was not without form, neither was it 
void. The same idea is embraced in the second 
chapter of Genesis, for it says the plants of the field 
were created, but had not been in the ground, nor 
had even grown, nor had there ever been rain upon 
the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. 
Man had been created and woman at the same time, 
and they the last of all to be created, but there was 
not a man to till the ground. 

Then we are informed of the first rain upon the 
earth, and the seventh verse shows that 1 man was 
formed of the dust of the grouud, and first after the 
earth, for there is no account of when the earth was 
formed, but it was ready for man when he was 
formed. But these things are proven in first and 
second chapters of this writing. 

Since I lay down this writing, I read an article in 
a church paper. Both the church and the paper 
stand high for holiness. It seemed to admonish any 
and all against the teaching of so called philosophy, 
and there is avast amount of room for that. But 
the article seemed to embrace the word ''philosophy 11 
entirely, and said, "The bread that man makes can 



AND LQGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 131 

not fill the hungry soul, but putting human fables 
under his feet, and resting in the grace, mercy and 
peace that flows from the Father through the Son." 
Now if the brightest and highest philosophy in nature 
was not found in all the Bible, and the very means of 
human salvation, then this remark might look better. 
Bat when will men cease to hurl the darkest slander 
against the pure, holy, divine character? For when 
the very clearest philosophy in nature is seen in all 
the Bible, and in everything that the Lord has done 
in, and with, and for this world, as revealed in the 
Bible, then the Bible will be the light and the hope 
of the world, and false philosophy will hide itself. 
But that is out of my course. Having considered 
creation as given in the first chapter of the Bible, and 
explained in the second chapter of this writing, a few 
remarks are presented on formation as it is found in 
the second chapter of Genesis and explained in the 
third chapter of this writing. Mention has been 
made of the earth as being without form and void 
after creation, and the words '^formation" and "cre- 
ation" defined, and also of all vegetables bringing 
fruit after their kind, before sun, 01 moon, or stars 
existed, which is a natural impossibility, as well as 
unscriptural. Mention was made of man and woman 
being created at the same time, and last of all things 
that were created, and that it is impossible in the 
very nature of things to reconcile the two chapters, 



132 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

if they are held to mean the same thing. Mention 
was made, too, of the second chapter, that the plants 
of the field, and the herbs of the field had been cre- 
ated, but had not been in the earth, and the herbs of 
the field had not grown, and there had not been rain 
upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the 
ground. 

All of this is said after the account of creation had 
closed. As most of the second chapter was touched 
in treating of formation in the third chapter of this 
writing, but little more will be said here. But in the 
account of formation, verse 7, says: u And the Lord 
God formed man of the dust of the ground, and 
breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man 
became a living soul." The living soul was provided 
for man in creation, and in formation the entire race 
inherits it in the person of Adam, the first man. 
Then he planted a garden, and then out of the 
ground, made the Lord God to grow, every 
tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food, 
the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and 
the tree of knowledge of good and evil. After telling 
of the waters of the garden, he put the man in the 
Garden of Eden to dress it and keep it. And the 
Lord God commanded the man, saying, <c Of every 
tree of the garden thou in ayes t freely eat. But of 
the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt 
not eat of it, for in the day thou eatest thereof, thou 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 133 

shalt surelv die." And after all this it is said, u It is 
not good that the man should be alone; I will make 
him a help-meet for him." "And out of the ground 
the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and 
every fowl of the air, and brought them to Adam to 
see what he would call them." Verse 21. And the 
Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and 
he slept. And he took one of his ribs, and closed up 
the flesh instead thereof. And the rib which the 
Lord God had taken from man made he a woman and 
brought her to the man. And Adam said, this is 
bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh. She shall 
be called woman because she was taken out of man. 
Therefore shall a man leave his father, and his mother, 
and shall cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one 
flesh. And they were both naked, the man and his 
wife, and were not ashamed." How different are the 
two chapters, creation and formation. That is most 
of the account of formation and it is in perfect agree- 
ment with the third chapter of this writing describ- 
ing formation, or if not, let it be shown. 

Now if this theology is strictly biblical then it is 
one with philosophy and removes all trouble or diffi- 
culty from these first two chapters of revelation. 

Genesis III. This chapter treats of the fall of the 
first pair, and in them was the fall of the entire 
human race. As it is shown why and how in the fifth 
chapter it will not require a full investigation here. 



134 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

But notice some items so brief, but containing such 
vastness and so clearly philosophical. The serpent 
was the tempting agent, but could not prevail of 
itself, but was met with an all-conquering weapon. 
For the woman's answer was 4t But of the fruit of the 
tree which is in the midst of the garden God hath 
said ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, 
lest ye die." But the woman did not hear that com- 
mand, for it was given to the man before she existed. 
But with that weapon valiantly handled all creation 
could not have produced her fall. And it settles a 
fact that all the earth is responsible for their accep- 
tance of the Bible when it is shown to be reasonable, 
no matter who was the scribe that wrote it. And 
the serpent said unto the woman ye shall not surely 
die. For God doth know that in the day ye eat 
thereof then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be 
as gods, knowing good and evil. Here was the argu- 
ment but no account of the woman yielding. But in 
in the sixth verse we see her scrutinizing the fruit 
and the tree. It is pleasant to look at, and it is good 
for food, and it will make us wise. 

Now it was wrong to eat that fruit, and dangerous 
to be familar with it, for it was pleasant to the sight 
and to the taste, and will make us wise. Now it is 
plain that the agent was the tempter, but the wrong 
was the temptation. But they both eat of the fruit. 
And as they did eat thereof they both died according 



AND LOGIC _0F THE SCRIPTURES. 135 

to the word of the Lord. When they were spiritually 
dead and physically alive they saw their nakedness, 
and felt a sense of shame. 

There are a few things to notice in these parts of 
the narrative. 

First, the weapon with which the Lord armed the 
woman, he has likewise put in the possession of every 
sane minded member of the human race, whether 
Christian or heathen, though they may not have heard 
of the Bible nor its author. That is conscience in- 
herent in every human mind, and though some regard 
it so little, it might seem wanting, but it is part of 
their nature, nevertheless, and its dictates amount to 
a l 'God hath said," to them. But some persons listen 
to the voice of conscience which is the Lord's deputy 
and obey its dictates, and like those who were saved 
before the Bible was written, so they are saved. 

Second item is: The tempter and the temptation 
seemed to gain a signal victory over the entire human 
race. But they were doing work that was absolutely 
necessary to be done for the utter and everlasting 
overthrow of themselves and everything connected 
with them ; for the very express design of this planet, 
and the human race was to use them in their fallen re- 
lation. The warfare could not be accomplished on a 
pure and holy planet. As we look for philosophy in 
all this it is visible in everv sentence. But look on a 
little further and see that the whole earth is fallen 



136 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

and become contaminated, and is in every particular 
fitted for a theater or war between right and wrong. 

In Genesis, fourth chapter, there is an account of 
two murders; Cain slew Able and Lamech slew a 
young man. 

The fifth chapter demonstrates that death is the lot 
of all, even the oldest. 

In the sixth chapter is an account of the great 
wickedness of the world, and it is there said of man 
that every imagination of his heart was only evil con- 
tinually, a true type of the unrenewed heart. It is also 
said, and it repented the Lord that he had made man 
on the earth, and it greived him at his heart. Here- 
in have we the correct sense of the word repent. It 
means to change the course, to do differently. In 
this way the Lord did repent, for he destroyed man 
whom he had made. When one truly does repent of 
anything it is shown by his ceasing to practice that 
which was repented of. It is further said, "And it 
greived him at his heart." Some think these expres- 
sions clearly prove that the Lord did not know what 
would come to pabS, until the sin occured. But this 
may be illustrated by the actions of men. It is said 
in some writings of the celebrated Napoleon Bona- 
part that on the occasion of one of his hard fought 
battles, when the interests of the day trembled on the 
decision of a few hours, there was a certain point in 
the heat of danger that required his presence. He 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 137 

moved for the spot with all speed, but on the way he 
saw one of his choice generals, one well beloved, who 
had received a mortal wound, and was in the death 
agony, but was still conscious. Their eyes met. Na- 
poleon shed tears, but could not stop. He ordered a 
subordinate to take care of him. Quite too much in- 
terest gathered around that moment for the com- 
manding general to heed anything else. He could 
cry for his friend, but must hasten away. His 
thoughts must be taken entirely away from him and 
given to the crisis that the hour had brought to view. 
In like manner the love and mercy of Him who com- 
manded in the great fight against wrong was grieved 
at his heart at the sin and its dread consequences. 
But the necessity to make a perfect work required 
him to suffer the world to sin, just about as they did 
sin, until the ends of wisdom were met. Herein is 
seen the philosophy among all the philosophies, and 
that is the characteristic of the Bible. 

Chapter seven. In this is narrated the details of 
the flood, and its consequences. But the reasons why 
the flood was sent upon the earth is given in chapter 
six, and the account all together makes the whole 
transaction clearly reasonable as any destruction of life 
in any political warfare of the world. The emeny's 
forces had gathered the whole race into its service, 
and was in constant warfare against the right and its 
author. The cause of wrong had possession of the 



138 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

theater of war and it must be wrested away or the 
cause of right; would at least seem to be given up. 
But to suffer the enemy to triumph that far and then 
make such a display of divine power over it was a dis- 
play of wisdom as well as power. 

All nature conspires to prove indisputably that 
this planet and the human race were called into exis- 
tence expressly for the great warfare in which the 
right must overcome the wrong, and annihilate its 
power to do mischief forever. There are few, if any, 
greater displays of divine wisdom and power in the 
entire warfare than is shown in the narrative of the 
flood. Neither the Bible nor the warfare could have 
been perfect without it, and it is philosophical as 
all the workings of nature around us. 

That this world is a warfare is too self evident to 
be called in question, beside all the Bible teaching, 
and being created by infinite power and wisdom it is 
impossible but that the warfare was the design of its 
creation and existence. 

It is equally clear that the Almighty does possess 
absolute power over all created nature, whether 
angels, men or demons. But the uncreated principle 
in nature, that wrong is possible, for that is the self 
existent principle, that is, and always was and always 
will be the antagonist of the Almighty. But that 
principle or possibility in nature is not the subject of 
command or control. But justice could not permit 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 139 

the creation of anything that could be corrupted 
until that principle or possibility to corrupt or defile 
would be virtually brought under divine control, and 
its power destroyed. Therein was the absolute neces- 
sity in nature for the warfare that is being accom- 
plished in this world to destroy that possibility to 
defile or contaminate. 

The only possible course to do that was to suffer it 
to be developed, met in warfare and overcome, and to 
make a show of it openly, so that all creatures would 
know the nature, and the wages of sin and that all 
creatures would be secured against sin everlastingly. 
Then it is clear that the whole transaction of the 
flood enters conspicuously into the warfare, and is to 
be regarded as a vast triumph, a signal victory. 

But why make this vast demonstration at that 
special time, but never afterward? That is a matter 
of record very plain, for it has not been written since 
that time, that all flesh had corrupted his way. But 
the world in mass at that time had assumed a hostil- 
ity toward their Creator that has always merited 
destruction and has always received it, as in the case 
of the Canaanites, and of the Sodomites. But it is 
written of the inhabitants of the earth at that time, 
t£ that every imagination of the thoughts of their 
hearts was only evil continually," verse 5, and verses 
11 and 12, ''The earth was corrupt before God, and 
the earth was filled with violence." And God looked 



140 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

upon the earth and behold it was corrupt; for all 
flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. 

Not only man was corrupt, but also the earth was 
corrupted by man and corrupt for man's sake 
Everything was fully ripe for a vast victory to be 
either gained or lost, but the wise commander of the 
forces of righteousness made it a notable success in 
the warfare, and made a revelation of this power over 
nature, and abhorance to sin and of the nature of sin 
to work destruction. But the war was not over yet, 
nor had the world accomplished its mission, and there 
was a remnant preserved to repeople the earth. The 
enemy was permitted to renew his vigilance until his 
work would accomplish its own destruction. Before 
leaving this subject let another thought be added, that 
is that in all cases where the destruction of a nation or 
a city or an army has been ordered, the reason for the 
order is easy to be seen in the warfare, where the 
people destroyed have taken such hostile ground in 
the war against the principles of righteousness that 
destruction was the only justifiable disposition to 
make of them. 

The next signal destruction was Sodom and Gomor- 
rah, and the next was Pharaoh and the Egyptian 
army in the Red Sea. Every principle of righteous- 
ness demanded their destruction as well as the inter- 
ests of the warfare. 

This next on record was the Midianites, emenies in 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 141 

the war of right against wrong, with all the power 
they possessed. The principles that govern every 
secular warfare that has been successful must justify 
the destruction of the Midianites. 

The next we find was those nations that inhabited 
the land that was promised to the twelve tribes for 
their inheirtance. The character of those nations did 
justify their destruction in the light of the spiritual 
warfare, and every feature of the transaction enters 
into the warfare, and shows real necessity to dispose 
of them as it was done. 

Also the destruction of the Amelekites by Saul first 
king of Israel. In the light of war these were abso- 
lute necessities. Anything less than destruction in 
all these cases together with the cities of the plain, 
Sodom and Gomorrah, would have been a victory 
against rightousness. But the very design of this 
planet and the human lace was, and is, that rightous- 
ness should overcome wrong in all its possible bear- 
ings, and make an end of its work everlastingly. 

From the fact that the Almighty overrules all the 
wickedness that men and demons commit, and all 
committed against Himself, in the nature of things 
it is impossible that any wickedness of any kind 
could or would be permitted that does not in some 
way enter into the warfare; neither can any afflic- 
tion, or trouble, or misfortune, or grief, or vexation. 
All the wrong that can be permitted or suffered to 



142 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

exist must contribute its part to make the warfare, or 
to hold its benefits in existence everlastingly. " It 
must needs be that offenses will come, but woe unto 
that man by whom the offense cometh." The enemy 
must be developed or else it could not be overcome* 
But woe unto any and all that choose to develop it. 
After this they builded, and their language was con- 
fused, the world is divided, and Abram is brought to 
view, and in him the typical nation arises, in and by 
which Revelation is filled up, perfected, and finished. 
First, Abram was a true type of the Lord's true ser- 
vants under Christ, whether laymen or ministers. 
For when the true heart sees clearly that the Lord 
has in any way given it directions, it is the meat and 
drink of its very spirit to obey, and there is no 
reserve, nor any exception to the rule. When God 
called Abram and told him to go into a strange land, 
He said to him, "I will bless them that bless thee, and 
curse him that curseth thee." This part of the promise 
is good to-day to every minister that the Lord has 
called to the work of the gospel. This treasure is also 
the inheritance of all persons that with their whole 
heart do follow the Lord as He invites and directs. 
The land of promise that was given to Abraham 
(name changed) by an everlasting covenant, for an 
everlasting possession, is the inheritance of every per- 
fect-hearted Christian, but not in its type. We have 
not past the everlasting yet, nor are we his natural 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 143 

descent, but believers are his heirs according to the 
promise. In the typical land the heathens were to 
be put to death. (They were a type of the wickedness 
of the unrenewed heart.) The land must be cleansed 
perfectly, and a kingdom set up in which the Lord 
only is king. The perfect type of the Christian when 
all the old inhabitants, namely the appetites, passions, 
pride, malice, selfishness, worldliness, and the like 
are crucified and the pure spiritual* kingdom set up in 
which none but Christ shall reign, that is the ever- 
lasting possession in its antitype, and the everlasting 
means endless. 

In the fifteenth chapter a son is promised and he 
believed in the Lord and he counted it to him for right- 
eousness, a type of gospel faith, not that faith had 
then or has yet either merit, or value, but when Abra- 
ham believed in the Lord it was with his undivided 
heart and that put all he was and all he had at the 
Lord's command. By his fully believing in the Lord r 
he was his perfect servant, without reserve, as seen 
when he obeyed the Lord when he told him to go into 
a strange land, not knowing whither he went, and 
also when he commanded him to make an offering' of 
this same son that he inherited by his faith in the 
word of the Lord. His faith produced faithfulness 
in all his life and actions. That is the quality of 
faith that saves to-day and no other. It is not myster- 
ious. This is treated in chapter 8. The Christian 



144 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

faith is as philosophical as the rising and the setting 
of the sun. Grod could not save sinners on any other 
condition and be just. Circumcision is a topic of 
the Bible, wise and necessary, and revelation could 
not be perfect without it, about as it is wiitten, but 
that with all other scripture topics that in modest or 
refined circles would be immodest if brought into 
common use or conversation should not be brought 
into the pulpit or into religious conversation in pres- 
ence of a promiscuous crowd or company. These 
topics were not designed to be used in the public audi- 
ence, or in the social circle, but are necessary for private 
instruction. In this there is often seen a great display 
of depravity, for many men seem to choose that class of 
immodest topics that pertain to woman,or to sexualities 
and make the freest use of them in their sermons. 
The same persons would abstain from other topics of 
the Bible that are no more immodest than the ones 
they seem to delight in. But the Lord condemns 
adultery of the heart also. These displays often bring 
the Bible and the whole question of piety into ridicule 
and disgust before the world, and not infrequently to 
the disgust of the honest but weak inquirer, and em- 
barrasses him in his search after Bible truth. If the 
man who does choke the spiritual infant to death by 
such inconsistencies,would murder the physical infant 
in a manner no more blameworthy, the legal author- 
ities would prosecute him for the crime; but the 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 145 

human race may be murdered spiritually and no no- 
tice taken of it. 

Passing to the narrative of Sodom, consider their 
wickedness, and filthiness into which the great enemy, 
wrong, had sunk them. How could created minds 
reach the conclusion that rational beings could, or 
would ever become sunk so deep into corruption as 
these Sodomites were found to be when these angels 
went among them, if the facts had not been devel- 
oped and recorded where that work of the enemy 
could be seen forever? But the object of this world 
is to put the fruit of wrong in all its forms and mag- 
nitudes on exhibition, that the knowledge may never 
be lost. It is worthy of notice how Abraham criti- 
cises his Creator, but it is accepted and honored, for 
Abraham said to the Lord: "Shall not the Judge of 
all the earth do right ?" These corrupt dens were 
destroyed, but the righteous were removed from the 
destruction. How much revelation is made in this 
'narative of Sodom, and all philosophically clear. 
Genesis xix : 29-38 gives account of the incest in Lot's 
family, but not a word or hint of approbation can be 
gleaned from the narrative. But it reveals a few 
things, namely, that the power of wrong that was 
seen in nature before creation is everywhere, and 
again, these two children each produced a heathen 
nation that degenerated and developed character that 



10 



146 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

became wicked, abandoned and finally lost. The clear- 
est condemnation. The other naratives are Ebime- 
lech forced to restore Abraham's wife, Isaac born, 
and the trial of Abraham's faith. What light this 
narative gives us: First to trust the Almighty in 
any and eyery possible case, and for the very logical 
reason that he knows all things and we do not, and 
further because he alwavs brings more reward to 
those that faithfully trust him than the trusting 
costs them that do trust. But these are the smallest 
considerations. Vastly greater than that is that on 
or very near the spot where Abraham offered his son 
virtually to the Lord, there the Lord made a real 
offering of his Son for Abraham. By this very nar- 
rative the Lord has shown us what is our highest 
possible privilege, to inherit the wisdom of the Lord, 
which we may have if we trust perfectly and live 
faithfully, dark as it may seem to be. 

The many short paragraphs that fill these pages do 
not require notice to reach our purpose, only those 
passages that seem dark. 

In Genesis xxxvi : 31-39 is the record of the kings 
that reigned in the land of Edom before there reigned 
any kings over the children of Israel. Infidel writers 
speak of this as most conclusive evidence that the 
whole book is false for there were no kings reigned 
over Israel until hundreds of years after the death of 
Moses, and it is said that Moses wrote the book of 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 147 

Genesis. They say that this was inserted here after 
the first king reigned over Israel. There are two log- 
ical answers to that objection. First, if Moses was 
the scribe that wrote Genesis, (but the Bible does not 
say he was,) he was not the author of any part of the 
Bible, and if he was the secretary that wrote, never- 
theless the author knew as well all these things 
while the book of Genesis was being written as he 
knows now, and if it was wisest and best to order this 
passage written then and there, it would be so done. 
But if it was not the proper time to insert it, then it 
was not done, and it is not a shadow of difference 
whether it was inserted when the rest of Genesis was 
written, or inserted when the same passage was writ- 
ten in Chronicles. For the Bible could not have been 
logical at that passage if it had not been inserted in 
Genesis, because the Bible must all be so written that it 
will bear logical inspection. 

Jacob and Esau were twin brothers, and were the 
subjects of prophecy before they were born, and 
Israel was Jacob, and Esau was Edom. Their con- 
nection must be traced to a certainty until the proph- 
ecy was fulfilled, for it was both possible and likely 
that two or more men of the same name would come 
into public notice at different times in the nation's 
history, hence the real necessity to identify Esau with 
Edom to a certainty while all were familiar with the 



148 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

history of the nation. Bat it is right just as we have 
it; all logical, plain, easy. 

Now notice a succession of events, displays of 
divine wisdom, they cannot be less, in the governing 
this people, Israel, so that they do make the most per- 
fect type of the life of a Christian, though Christian- 
ity was not introduced for twelve or fifteen hundred 
years afterward, at the same time filling up and com- 
pleting the divine revelation. Commence with the 
conspiracy against Joseph who was sold, falsely ac- 
cused and imprisoned, held two or three years, provi- 
dentially brought out and promoted to the highest 
relation next to the king. Israel all went to Egypt, 
the fulfillment of the Lord's words to Abraham, but 
in the second generation they became the most per- 
fect type of the whole human race. They are born 
under bondage to the Egyptians as all the earth is 
born under bondage to the fall and its consequences. 

Here let one thought be inserted, namely, that the 
types that are so clearly shown in Abraham and his 
descendants from the time the Lord called him until 
the present time contain a display of infinite wisdom 
more grand and more exalted, and more clear and 
bright than there is to be found in any writing on 
earth. The same wisdom is seen in all his works, but 
in these types it is more minutely discribecl and at 
greater length, and makes it so unmistakably plain. 
There are so many items, and they are of such incal- 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 149 

culable importance and value, as, for example, that a 
political government could be, and was so administered 
as first, to answer all designs of government notwith- 
standing the ungovernable nature of the people that 
were governed; and second, that these government 
journals or records should make so perfect a revela- 
tion of its administrator, and third that these same 
records of that political power should at the same 
time make and show with perfect clearness and cer- 
tainty the type of the Christian in every particular, 
both the affirmative, and the negative, though Chris- 
tianity was not introduced for about two thousand 
years after the call of Abram. 

In noticing these types it is not likely that they 
will all be seen, nor is it likely all is seen that is in 
some of them. But it is likely that enough will be 
seen to be a perfect light to the Christian path. If 
all who bear the name of Christian will hold the pre- 
cepts of the New Testament in the light of these 
types it would determine to a certainty the meaning 
of those precepts, and show to an unerring certainty 
what is required to make the Christian acceptable to 
his Lord. And it would be the end of all essential 
difference of religious opinion, for the types are of 
such a nature that people cannot understand them 
differently, and that is their value. See chapter VII. 

Exodus, chapter first. Inasmuch as infidel writers 
have made a very ridiculous showing of the people 



150 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

going down into Egypt, and of their coming out of 
Egypt, it is therefore necessary to show it up in a 
Bible light. The first chapter shows an increase of 
Israel altogether unusual; insomuch that it alarmed 
the Egyptians. But the infidel tells us that it was 
impossible for the number that went into Egypt to 
increase to the number that is represented to come 
out of it, in the time they were in Egypt, for they 
say there were seventy souls went into Egypt with 
Jacob. But the Bible counts by name the males that 
went with Jacob; his twelve sons and their sons and 
their grandsons make the seventy. See Genesis, 46th 
chapter. Mention is made of females, to show that 
all his blood descent went with him; but these were 
not counted in the seventy. Beside the seventy males, 
the twelve sons of Jacob had wives, and two of his 
grandsons, namely, Pharez, son of Judah, and Beriah, 
son of Asher, had two sons each. Now the females 
of Jacob's blood, we know not how many, and if 
these men had each one wife it would make fourteen 
more; if thev had two to the man it would be twen- 
ty-eight more. But if they were like father Jacob, 
some or all of them raising families by four women 
to the man, it would be fifty-six women. Besides all 
that it was common and lawful to raise children by 
servants, as Abraham with Hagar, and Jacob with his 
wife's servants. Still further, from the accounts of 
those times and that people, there is room to suppose 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 151 

that there were as many servants as all the connection 
would need, so that all things considered in the light 
of the Bible and of common sense, it cannot be 
known how many souls went down into Egypt. It 
is more likely there were two hundred than that there 
were only seventy. If there were as many females as 
there were males of Jacob's blood descent, it would 
make one hundred and forty of his children and their 
children; and with other probabilities shown in these 
pages, the number that went down into Egypt could 
not reasonably be thought less than three hundred. 

They say that Israel remained in Egypt two hun- 
dred and fifteen years, but the Bible says the stay of 
Israel in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years, 
and the self same day they came out. 

Some of them, among whom is R. G. Ingersoll, 
take the statistics of our own earlv settlements as a 
standard of comparison. All right; 1 will show some 
figures from the standard history of the United 
States. Commencing with the settlement at James- 
town in 1607, we would have two hundred and seven- 
ty-three years until A. D. 1880, at which date the 
inhabitants of the United States numbered about fifty 
millions. From the settlement of Jamestown in 
1607 to the year 1790, the records show the popula- 
tion to have increased to three millions nine hundred 
and twenty-nine thousand two hundred and four- 
teen; time, only one hundred and eighty-three years', 



152 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

twenty-two } T ears less time than they want to allow 
Israel to have been in Egypt. Let shame burn the 
cheek of the man that will so designedly pervert the 
truth, and for no other purpose than to make a lie out 
of the only book in whose account the human race 
has hope. 

Chapter IT, Moses was born and taken care of on 
natural, visible principles, and yet it is miraculous as 
anything recorded in the Bible. Chapter III, Moses 
sent, or commanded to go to Pharoah. Chapter IV, 
origin of the miraculous rod. Chapter V. Moses and 
Aaron took the Lord's message to Pharoah to let the 
people go, and Pharoah said, u Who is the Lord that 
I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not 
the Lord, neither will I let Israel go. 1 ' How plainly 
fallen nature is shown in that very expression and 
action, for the burden was laid heavier on Israel, in- 
somuch that Israel complained to Moses and Aaron, 
and they complained to the Lord. And after these 
things were past, there is an account of the ten 
plagues that were sent on Egypt. Of these but little 
will be said, but they prove the Lord's power over all 
nature, to turn water to blood, or to call into exist- 
ence frogs, or flies, or lice in any quantities, and 
cause them to do his will immediately, murrian 
among stock, or boil and blain among men, or hail, 
or locusts, or darkness, or death of all first born. 
These were not incidental things then, nor are they 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 155 

yet. We will notice the philosophy of these things 
with others of a similar kind, after a while. Does 
this show why men are afflicted so much because of 
disobedience? Chapter XII, there was a change of 
time that should last during the existence of the 
typical nation; and also the passover was instituted 
which should last as long. The Paschal lamb should 
be a male without blemish, of the first year. "And 
they shall take of the blood and strike on the two 
side posts and on the upper door post of the houses 
wherein they shall eat it. And they shall eat the 
flesh in that night roast with fire and unleavened 
bread, and with bitter herbs shall they eat it." A 
type of the atoning blood that saves the soul and that 
saved the body from the death of their first born. 
When one eats and drinks the body and blood of 
Christ spiritually, it must be natural, nothing feigned, 
nothing selfish, no leaven. 

It was noticed that when those Israelttes who went 
into Egypt were dead, that those who were born in 
Egypt were the most perfect type of the human race, 
born under the bondage of sin. But when Israel felt 
their bondage to be a burden, that was a type of one 
who is awakened to a sense of his burden. When 
the Lord sent the man Moses to call them out of 
bondage, it points to the minister of the cross whom 
the Lord sends to call men out from the bondage of 
sin. 



154 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

When the King refused to let them go, it was like 
the hold that the world has on the convicted sinner. 
The plagues show the divine care over any that cry 
to him for deliverance and shows the Lord's power 
over all nature, even the creeping things of earth. 
When they are brought out it is the clearest type 
that can be of the conversion of a sinner from dark- 
ness to light. But they slay the lamb and sprinkle 
its blood on the sides and top of the door, not on 
lower sill, but that very blood saves Israel, and the 
want of it slays the first born in all Egypt. When 
they eat the lamb with bitter herbs it is the Christian 
who eats the flesh of Christ spiritually, the bitter 
herbs being the bitterness of this world to the spirit 
of Christians. The Lord went before them in the 
pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day. 
These are known by experience to the Christian. 
Every true Christian knows the providence of the 
Lord leads him, but it is not seen by the enemies of 
the cross and of the Christian. 

They come to the sea and their enemies pursue 
them. The Christian almost invariably meets with 
difficulties not long after conversion. They trust 
and wait till the sea is parted and the Christian will 
wait and trust but not go back until the way is opened 
to go on and find no harm. Israel saw the destruc- 
tion of their enemies, and the Christian who fullv 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 155 

trusts will have such a victory over his first vast 
enemy that he will likely never see it again. 

The typical people hungered physically and the 
Lord sent them manna; it fell from above. The 
Christian hungers spiritually and is as really fed with 
the spiritual food that supports the spiritual life as 
Israel was fed with visible food to sustain the physi- 
cal man. But can philosophy and theology marry at 
this point? If Grod is proven to be a philosophical 
demonstration outside of the Bible they can. See 
chapter 1. 

This is the promise of the Lord to every Christian 
that while faithful he shall be sustained, and the 
promise was in the form of type that it could not be 
misunderstood. It was done by visible action, that 
is, example added to precept, for the same promise is 
given by words strong as they can be. This visible 
feeding of the typical people from the Lord's invisible 
store was a real necessity to make the correct revela- 
tion perfect in all its bearings, and where necessity is 
seen for anything its philosophy cannot be denied. 

In chapter 17 the people want water and the Lord 
told Moses to take his rod and go. "Behold I will 
stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb, and 
thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water 
out of it that the people may drink. And Moses did 
so in the sight of the elders of Israel.' 7 A like narra- 
tive is recorded in Numbers xx :8-ll. Are they the 



156 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

same or are they different acts? But notice the types 
these narratives make. The people thirst physically 
and must have water or die, so is the spiritual man. 
But the water was furnished from the rock, not a 
rock. Here is the promise of the Lord by type, and 
the act visibly performed, to furnish the water of life 
for the thirsting spirit. The same promise is made 
by precept, or in words, but designing men pervert 
the word. The type cannot be perverted. 

Now in the very nature and design of the Lord's 
revelation, it was a real necessity that this should be 
done, and put on record in revelation just as we have 
it, and that which is a necessity is philosophical. Our 
God of the Bible does not do unnecessary work. It 
was all literally fulfilled when Christ, the rock was 
smitten on Calvary, and on the day of Pentecost the 
water of life was poured out on all flesh. Let the 
disputer tell us that it is useless to eat bread or drink 
water to sustain physical nature, but let no man of 
brains say that these last two narratives are not phil- 
osophical necessities. 

The next verse after the close of the supply of 
water is the commencement of another type, the war 
with Amalek. Now that narrative is filled with 
type, and lesson so important! Israel was the type of 
a Christian soon after conversion. Amalek was any 
person who attempted to turn aside the Christian 
while he is weak. The hands of Moses when held up 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 157 

enabled Israel to prevail, and when he let down his 
hands, Amalek prevailed. The hands held up means 
to the Christian when attacked by the world that 
fervent prayer to, and perfect reliance on Almighty 
God will enable him to prevail. But Moses' hands 
were held up till the going down of the sun and Is- 
rael prevailed. Young Christian, you need not be 
overcome. When the world attacks you hold up the 
hands. God is there. But the type that Amalek 
was to make is reserved to the proper time, and is 
seen in connection with the downfall of Saul, the 
first king of Israel, for his disobedience when he was 
sent to destroy Amalek. It will be noticed when we 
pass it, for it is utter extermination. 

Chapter 20. Israel is at Mount Sinai and here the 
law proclaimed by a voice of terror that they do 
not forget while memory lasts, neither is its impor- 
tance forgotten through time. It also has its typical 
significance, a very little of which will be noticed. 
The faithful convert to light and truth and their 
author, will hunger, spiritually, and will be fed, and 
will thirst for the water of life and it will be supplied. 
After he has passed through the sea in triumph and 
has had his sharp conflict with Amalek and conquered 
he begins to feel the want of instruction. Israel re- 
ceives the law spoken to them by its author. But 
the Christian goes to the law as it is written and finds 
his rule of action in the gospel, and reads that love is 



158 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

the fulfilling of the law. Then if faithful, but not 
till then, is he prepared to do efficient service in the 
great war in which his redeeming Lord is commander. 
Now as to the philosophy of those plagues that were 
sent on Pharaoh, and other items that seem miraculous, 
if the great Almighty was acknowledged by the whole 
Hebrew nation to be their sole law giver for four 
hundred years and their nationality is as well au- 
thenticated as any nation that ever existed. These 
are the official acts that are recorded by the officials 
of the nation by order of their ruling power — not 
philosopical ? If not what would you acknowledge to 
be philosophical? Is the celebrated Mr. Huxley one 
of the leading minds of the world for infidelity? 
There was published what professed to be an extract 
from his speech and in it was written as his words, "If 
there is anything in this world which I do firmly 
believe in, it is the universal validitv of the law of 
causation. But that universality can not be proven 
by any amount of experience, let alone that which 
comes though the senses/' 

Then what could induce the belief in universal 
causation? Surely the book of nature only. 

When nature is viewed it is seen to show design in 
every thing, and it is utterly impossible to find the 
designer other than the God of the Bible. But take 
a common sense view of all nature, and the philoso- 
phical and unbiased mind is driven to the conclusion 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 159 

that the God of the Bible is the root of all philosophy, 
the first principles of all causation. Then those 
plagues as well as all other miraculous things and all 
prophecy, are they philosophical or not? The intro- 
ductory chapters prove that they are. 

But in the tabernacle and the service rendered in it 
each feature shows a different type, the offering 
the morning and evening lamb, family worship 
morning and evenings Christians come in the name 
of and plead the merits of the Lamb of Calvary, a 
privilege and a treasure. The incense should be 
burned on the altar of incense evening and morning 
when the lamps were lighted, that is, family prayer. 
But the perpetual burning of incense is the perpetual 
spirit of prayer. The privilege of family worship 
goes back to the tabernacle. The seven lamps that 
were on the golden candlestick were trimmed filled 
with oil and lighted, morning and evening. It was 
kept constantly burning in the tabernacle for it was 
dark within. The human body is frail like the tab- 
ernacle, and these lamps are the seven spirits of God 
spoken of elsewhere. They also represent the seven 
essential attributes of the divine character, namely 
truth, love, pow r er, wisdom, justice, mercy and immu- 
tability. By these typical lamps the vast privilege i& 
offered to keep these pure lights burning in man's 
dark nature day and night, and the incense also con- 
stantly burning. 0, why is this type set light by, or 



160 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

why not seek it at the cost of this whole world, if 
such would be required? The table of shew bread 
was holy. The Christian lives on the bread of life, 
which is Christ, but the minister's higher lot is to 
eat nothing else. His daily work is to study these 
things. These types when seen are so plain and for- 
cible that they cannot be misunderstood. 

The ark was very conspicious among the items that 
Moses was commanded to make. Was it not a type 
of the perfect Christian heart? It was composed of 
the choicest and costliest material. Jts visible parts 
were gold, and the mercy seat of pure gold served as 
a lid for it. The cherubims were also of gold, of beat- 
en work, on the two ends of the mercy seat. Within 
the ark were kept the table of the covenant, that is, 
the moral law. This represents the law written on 
true heart by the spirit of the Lord. It also contained a 
sample of miraculous food, the manna, and the pure 
heart holds in grateful memory the favors received of 
the Lord. It had within it Aaron's rod, that wonder 
working rod, whose motion seemed to bring deliver- 
ance to the Israelites so often, the emblems of their 
salvation by and through supernatural power, and 
the sanctified heart holds these blessings in memory. 
The Lord occupies the mercy seat, and the heart 
comes to the mercy seat to meet its Lord. The power 
of the Lord went with the ark, and the power of the 
Lord is found in the perfectly true heart. More 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 161 

might be said on the ark, but I do not claim to fully 
understand what the ark signifies to us. Another 
item of importance is the atonement that should be 
made once a year with the blood of a sacrificed beast 
for the whole nation by the high priest. This was a 
perfect type of our high priest when by his own 
blood he made an atonement for the whole world, the 
entire human race. All the sacrifices that were offered 
of beast or fowl found their fulfillment in the great 
sacrifice that our Lord made of himself to atone for 
sin. But after that it was not required of anyone to 
make a typical atonement. 

NUMBERS. 

Numbers XIII. The people at the wilderness of 
Paran pitch their tents and the command is given to 
send twelve men to Canaan to spy out the land. 
They went and returned and brought of the fruit, 
and when they made their report, two of the twelve 
said they would go up at once and possess the land, 
for the Lord had commanded them to go up and poss- 
ess it, and the Lord would go before them and drive 
out the heathen. But the ten said they could not go 
for the people were stronger than they, and there 
were giants in the land. The people did not believe 
that the Lord would drive out the heathen, and 
would not go, and the Lord threatened them with 
destruction, which shows his justice in the case. But 
11 



162 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

the man Moses ventured to plead for them, and they 
were spared. But we read the Lord swear in his wrath, 
they shall not enter into his rest. 

All from twenty years and upward should not en- 
ter the land of Canaan except the two faithful ones 
that relied on the promise of the Lord. This type is 
of the highest importance. The land is a promise to 
the Christian who will take the Lord at his word be- 
lieving his promise, and enter into the land of promise 
that he shall inherit perfect love, perfect peace, and 
perfect victory. They were directed to go into the 
land and possess it before crossing the Jordan, the 
emblem of death, for they were on the opposite side 
of the Dead Sea from the Jordan. 

This type is a direction for the Christian and to the 
Christian how to obtain the perfect heart which is 
the antetype of Canaan, and is the fulfillment of the 
promise that was made to Abraham of an everlasting 
possession (Gensis xvii:8.) by an everlasting covenant, 
(Gensis xvii:13-19.) 

When Christians reach sufficient experience to live 
in such a high state of bliss and not dishonor it, they 
may look at this very narrative and find the promise 
of the Lord that if they will go into perfect Christian 
liberty, and perfect love, and perfect peace, for this is 
the promised inheritance, the Lord will help them 
to cleanse the heart, as he helped Israel to drive the 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 163 

heathen out of the promised land. Gri^e the entire 
will and desire into his hand. 

But when Christians come to Paran and see that 
they may take possession of the perfect heart and 
live in the land of peace, which is to resign the en- 
tire will to the Lord in perfect trust, many of them 
fear to try, and seem to think they could not conquer 
their pride, or malice, or appetite, or love of the 
world, or of light, unholy company, or could not con- 
sent to be among a separate people from the world, 
and to utterly destroy all the old inhabitants and set 
up Christ's kingdom in their hearts in purity and 
truth. A very few go when they see the privilege, 
and live in a comparative heaven many years, and at 
last die in the highest enjoyment. But those who 
fear they can not conquer their own hearts and like 
Israel refuse to try, will most likely fall in the wilder- 
ness. But if they fight valiantly, holding up the 
hands (that is, prayer) until they come to the Jordan 
they may at last cross the stream into the land of 
promise. How clear is philosophy seen in all these 
types! The congregation are in the wilderness forty 
years until all the people were dead who refused to 
believe and enter in. 

Numbers xvi:l-32. Korah, Dothan and Abi- 
ram, with certain of the children of Israel two hun- 
dred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the 
congregation, men of renown, attempted to usurp the 



164 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

preisthood to which the Lord had called Aaron, but 
the Lord caused the earth to be opened and to swallow 
up these three leading ones, and fire came out from 
the Lord and consumed the two hundred and fifty 
that offered incense. This type shows who may, and 
who may not assume the Christian ministry, just 
those whom the Lord calls and sends, and no other? 
though a vast number to-day bear the name of min- 
ister of the gospel, and thereby receive their support 
who are not called of the v Lord to that work. All 
such may live and preach physically, but spiritually 
they are dead, and so are their supporters if they are 
not deceived. 

Chapter xix. The water of separation, how it is 
prepared, and its use, is typical only. Many features 
enter into this type. There are many waj^s of becom- 
ing unclean spiritually. We may mention some, such 
as mingling with the world, hearing bad conversa- 
tion, or seeing unrighteous actions, being tempted 
with unrighteous desires, inclinations or appetites, or 
keeping worldly company. Indeed Christians cannot 
live and mingle with and among the world and evade 
uncleanness. But little of this is real sin; but it is 
impurity and for it there is a fountain opened in the 
house of David, that is to the Christian spiritually, 
like unto the stream from the rock that was smitten 
by the rod, to Israel physically, and they stand in as 
much need of it as did Israel. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 165 

Now this type of cleansing with the water of sep- 
aration is so full and plain that it cannot be misunder- 
stood. It shows Christians's privilege to keep them- 
selves pure. The species of uncleanness that requires 
the longest time to cleanse was caused by the touch 
of a dead body or being in the house where one was 
dead, or by touching a grave or a bone of one dead. 
Any of these would cause one to be unclean seven 
davs, and he must not enter the tabernacle within 

%f 7 

that time without incurring the penalty of death, 
but with the proper use of cleansing typically, he 
might be clean the seventh day at even or evening. 
Now the dead body of the New Testament is the 
body of sin. That must be crucified and buried in 
the death of Christ, (Romans vi:3-4.) Nothing else 
will hide it and if it be never resurrected, it can never 
be touched. But if one incline to his old paths of 
sin, it is touching the dead body, and if he go to 
church before he is cleansed he would be spiritually 
dead while he is there. This type is designed for the 
benefit of Christians in general, and shows us at once 
both the purity and also the narrowness of the way 
of life and salvation from sin. But are the narratives 
of the earth swallowing up three and the fire from 
the earth consuming two hundred and fifty philosoph- 
ical? And also the narrative of the water of sep- 
aration and its use? All of these are the legislative 
and executive acts of the Hebrew government and 



166 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

that alone is sufficient to compel the affirmative 
answer they are philosophical. 

Besides that it is shown in these pages that nature 
proves the God of the Bible to be a philosophical 
demonstration and that makes all his work philosoph- 
ical. Theology and philosophy are not divorced in 
these items. 

Chapter xx. Death of Miriam. The rock is 
smitten twice and the waters flow abundantly. 
Aaron dies on the mount. The Lord's chosen does not 
die in the valley of despair and doubt. 

Chapter xxi. The type of the fiery serpents that 
bit and killed many of the people, and when they 
repented the Lord told Moses to make a serpent of 
brass and raise it on a pole, and when those who were 
bitten looked on it they were saved. This points the 
whole earth to the Son of Man lifted up for their sal- 
vation. Well, is that clearly philosophical? Who 
puts the question, and why not? Is not this pointing 
to the atonement, and does not the atonement fill all 
nature? And is it not the foundation of all existence 
and inseparably connected with all human life 
whether good or bad? And the type has so plain a 
design to show the real necessary condition of the 
well being of the entire human race. 0, man is not 
this the clearest philosophy possible? If it is not, 
then pray tell us what is? 

King Arad the Canaanite fought against Israel and 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 167 

took some of them prisoners. But Isreal utterly 
destroyed them and their cities. Chapter 21. The 
Amorites subdued and the cities possessed, and by 
Og, King of Bashan with his people until there were 
none left alive, and they possessed the land. These 
with the Midianites, and people of Canaan, and the 
Amalekites were commanded to be exterminated. 
The first exterminated was King Ar*id who fought 
against Israel and took some of them prisoners. These 
were a type of the human agency that makes attemps 
to turn the Christian from his Christian life while he 
is young in the cause. But Israel asked the Lord for 
help, and received it, and utterly destroyed them and 
their cities. 

Sihon, King of Arumon, refused to let Israel pass 
through their land, but gathered their forces and 
fought them, but Israel beat them and took possession 
of all their cities. Then Og, king of Bashan, with- 
stood Israel, but Israel smote them until there was 
none left alive. These last two commenced the fight 
against the Lord in the person of Israel, which was a 
just cause for their extermination. 

Here may be inserted a word on the relation these 
exterminating providences sustain to the warfare. In 
all wars of the world which are but types of the war 
between right and wrong, it is regarded as the duty 
of a commander to make the best use of the life of 
the enemy of which the commander is capable in 



168 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

order to reach the victory and accomplish the object 
of the war. But in this spiritual warfare in which 
the commander must reign till he hath put all enemies 
under his feet, the commander had power to exter- 
minate all his enemies from the earth at a word, but 
he has use for them to bring their cause to the soldier 
of the cross that it may be overcome, for this warfare 
must be a perfect one. 

Aside from the warfare in all these destructions 
there are reasons found within the narrative that 
are all-sufficient why they should be made. But 
viewed in the light of the warfare they are absolute 
necessities, all of them, for the enemy is overcome at 
all these points. Physical death inflicted for crime 
establishes the divine power and establishes the fact 
that individuals who involve themselves in similar 
crime do incur spiritual death in the very action. A 
signal victory was gained over the enemy in every 
case. In the first case man had corrupted the earth, 
and the penalty was physical death by water. The 
second was that men had corrupted a city (Sodom) 
and they suffered death by fire, and the third was 
that the Midianites had committed a terrible sin 
against Israel when they were the type of one con- 
verted from sin to righteousness,but not yet sanctified; 
they had not reached the type of perfect peace. The 
Midianites were exterminated by the sword. 

The next to be considered were the seven nations 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 169 

of Canaan and those two or three nations east of 
Jordan, all that inhabited the promised possession, 
the reason being shown else where. Put all these 
together and call it the fourth case of the kind. 

The fifth case was the Amalekites, whose crime 
was an absolute demand for their extermination, for 
they had laid wait for Israel when they came up out 
of Egypt, the type of seeking in any way to attempt 
the overthrow of the young convert to Christianity, 
Now these sweeping exterminations were absolutely 
necessary victories in the warfare. Beside that the 
types they make all enter into the warfare, which 
was the sole object of this world's existence, and the 
sole object of the human race to make a perfect work 
of that warfare. 

These remarks are sufficient for all the narratives 
of that kind, but the Bible entire enters into and 
makes up the warfare, every narrative its part. 

But the necessity for their extermination was that 
they were in the land that should be the inheritance that 
was promised, for the two tribes and a half were le- 
gally settled on the wilderness side of Jordan. And 
the land must be perfectly cleansed of the old inhab- 
itants, as the land on the Canaan side, and for the 
same reason which is treated in chapter seven. But 
notice a little more. The whole land of promise for 
the twelve tribes was a type of the human heart. 
The wicked inhabitants were the type of the un- 



170 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

changed heart. The perfect extermination of the 
heathen is a perfect type of the cleansing and the 
thorough change of heart necessary for the spiritual 
kingdom. But the entire new life, loyal, loving, 
faithful, was typical of setting up the kingdom in 
Canaan, after the heathen were put away, in which 
none but the great Almighty should reign. Now 
this new kingdom is the condition of salvation, but 
there are so few even in the church that do not deny 
this essential truth, though it is taught by words as 
plainly as words can teach it. But speculative pro- 
fessors cast a cloud over the plain words of the Lord 
so thick that many an honest inquirer finds difficulty 
to know the truth, but when these types are studied 
and seen they are so plain they cannot be misunder- 
stood. 

Is there philosophy in all of this? The very clear- 
est in the world. These two and a half tribes that 
were legally settled on their inheritance on the wilder- 
ness side of Jordan have the promise fulfilled to them 
as verily as those in Canaan. That is the type of the 
perfect Christian heart and life and it is the Lord's 
promise to those who really seek that vast treasure 
that they shall find it. 

Chapter xxv. Israel went with the heathen, and 
the heathen lead them into the depth of wickedness. 
They called Israel to the sacrifices of their gods, and 
four and twenty thousand of Israel fell because of 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 171 

the plague for their idolatry; <l and the people did eat, 
and bowed down to their Gods. And Israel joined 
himself unto Baalpear, and the anger of the Lord was 
kindled against Israel." 

But the 31st chapter records the judgment of the 
Midianites, and the judgments of these nations, phy- 
sical or visible, is a type of spiritual punishment for 
a similar offence. To the Midianites it was extermin- 
ation except the women children. This makes 
the type perfect in that case, for the women children 
when raised in and by another nation and becoming 
connected in the family relation with them, would 
never incline to the old ways of the nation of their 
fathers. But even this could not be authorized by 
law giver in cleansing any part of the land that fell 
to the lot of any of the twelve tribes of Israel, because 
the type that Israel would make should be a perfect 
description of, and guide to, the Christian life. And 
as the inhabitants that dwelt in Canaan were the per- 
fect type of the wicked principles of the natural heart 
unrenewed, the command was to save alive nothing that 
breatheth. That means to those that choose the ben- 
efits of Christianity, to turn the world out of the 
heart perfectly, and keep the temple pure and the 
King will dwell and reign there. Now is not the 
salvation of the entire human race wrapt up in this 
type? But some would say, "We want that which 
looks philosophical." Oh, yes, certainly. 



172 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

If the teacher teaches the young children to write 
by making copies of the letters or of marks without 
meaning, if it would instruct the pupils you would 
call the action philosophical, for the means are adopt- 
ed to the accomplishment of the object. But this 
most important of all topics that concerns the work 
of man, and plain as the A, B, C, of any common 
school, that is not philosophical! Oh, shame! 

But the design is not to touch all the Bible but 
only those parts that thedisputers claim their victory 
on, or that the believers do not make plain, or both. 
Remove the darkness from those passages and all the 
rest will be plain. 

But little more requires to be noticed until the 
crossing the Jordan, except the death of Moses. 
What an illustrious type is that! He is on the sum- 
mit of Pisgah and from there he viewed the land that 
was the type of heaven. But when the soldiers of 
the cross calmly look death in the face with triumph 
and in sight of heaven, the very wise ones of this 
world say they are delirious. But this type is divine 
authority for the fact that the faithful follower of 
the risen Lord does often step from the mount of 
ecstasy into heaven and is not in sight of the Jordan. 

But Joshua is commanded to cross the Jordan, the 
emblem of death, and enter the promised land. That 
land was a type of heaven, and also a type of the per- 
fect Christian life on earth. The two and a half 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 173 

tribes to whom the lines fell on the wilderness side 
of the Jordan were a type in particular. For the 
wilderness side represents human life, and the tribes 
of Ruben and of Gad, and half the tribe of Manassah 
had the promise fulfilled to them as really as those 
who received their lots in Canaan, which makes the 
same type perfect that was proposed to Israel if they 
enter the land of promise from Paron, which they 
failed to do. But these two and a half tribes were 
the type of human life, and their inheritance was a 
type of the spirit and nature that is enjoyed in heaven 
perfect love, perfect peace and perfect victory, and 
the promise is confirmed to the Christian to-day, that 
he may inherit the principles of purity and acceptance 
in this life as really as he ever can after death. 

The teachings on the more important subjects are 
often repeated over and over, again and again, as for 
instance, Israel being brought out of Egypt. Some 
infidels call it a boast to refer to it so often, but cer- 
tainly it is not. Why should it be considered a 
boast? Oh, man that so speaks, to whom would the 
boast be made? Stop and think one moment in the 
light of common sense. When it is viewed as the 
type of bringing the soul from the bondage of sin 
into the light and liberty of the gospel, and the con- 
version of the soul, the change of heart from sin, 
darkness and despair, into light, truth and godliness, 
then it is not too frequently repeated. No, no, they 



174 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

are not repeated too often. Many persons of learn- 
ing regard the oft repeating of these leading passages 
as the weakness of revelation. But after the laws of 
this world are changed from physical to spiritual, and 
the righteous and also the wicked of the earth gath- 
ered like the harvest and consigned to their eternal 
home, and this revelation so conspicuously exhibited 
that he who runs may read, and those passages that 
many fine scholars have thought to be illiterate or a 
boast are fully interpreted, they will see and say these 
very items are the wisdom of God. All could see 
them now we see the folly of disregarding them. 

The topic most frequently referred to is the sacri- 
fice of our Savior for the sin of the world. The type 
of the conversion of the soul that is brought out of 
Egyptian bondage is perhaps the next to it, and the 
perfect life in the world is nearly as often referred 
to. 

To cross the Jordan was the type of physical death. 
It was crossed when in its most fearful form or con- 
dition, for it overflowed its banks when it was 
crossed. But the people who crossed that impassable 
looking stream do not represent the perfect Christian 
through life, who has walked the cast up way, always 
conquerer without a struggle. Such a one dies on 
the mountain top. But those who cross here repre- 
sent those who have come through the wilderness 
and have struggled and fought hard all the way 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 175 

through and conquered, and they are at the river that 
represents death in its most frightful condition. 

But the type goes on. After obedience to all 
orders, this terrible stream separates and the priests 
that bear the ark of the covenant of the Lord stood 
firm on dry ground in the midst of Jordan, and all 
the Israelites passed over on dry ground until all the 
people were passed clear over. 

Now this is the promise of the Lord to the loyal 
Christian who fights through the wilderness and over 
comes. Such will get through death like Israel 
crossed the Jordan into the land of promise. 

What about the philosophy of all this? Infinite 
power with a design so worthy and grand, ought ta 
have done just the thing that was done and anything 
else could not have been philosophical. 

But those that care not for the Lord and trust not 
in him find in that stream the death of all hope, and 
are soon in the dead sea in hopeless spiritual death. 

Now these typical people are to set up a typical 
kingdom in which the Grod of Israel alone is king, as- 
he had been since he took them under his special 
command and showed his rule so public, as in the 
case of the plagues in Egypt, and at the Red Sea and 
the war with Amalek and others, and at the crossing 
of Jordan. But now the kingdom hence forward is 
to be a local kingdom. The very design of this king- 
dom that Israel was to set up was to be a perfect 



176 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

type of the kingdom of Christ set up in the Chris- 
tian's heart, and like the cast up way, must be so 
plain that fools should not err therein. Neither 
.good nor bad could be deceived therein. The native 
inhabitants of Canaan were the fit type of the un- 
changed heart and life, and as in the type the visible 
inhabitants were to be perfectly cleared out of the 
land, even so under Christ, let every worldly principle 
be perfectly cleared out of the heart, and the spiritual 
kingdom set up in the heart, with nothing alive in 
that heart that could be offensive to the divine purity 
of the Lord. But notwithstanding the Lord's com- 
mand to leave alive nothing that breatheth, yet they 
failed of perfect obedience, and they paid the penalty. 
In Jericho there was one exception, namely, the har- 
lot Rahab. When the spies were there she believed 
and on her faith she acted, and hid the spies, and the 
good deed done on her faith justified the spies in giv- 
ing her a promise of life for her and her house. On 
her faith was the promise, and on the promise she and 
her house perished not with them that believed not, 
but was brought out and saved. Now is there any 
mistake about this? Is it not the strongest promise 
that can be made to believing parents to pray and 
believe for their relations and receive them? The 
type that this woman makes is a most precious prom- 
ise to the sorrowing heart, inciting to pray and not 
faint, to plead and not weary. Faithful father, 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 177 

mother, pray on! The next place to conquer was 
Ai, but what a terrible defeat. 

All Israel fled before the people of Ai. Why did 
they fly before their enemies? Because one man had 
taken some gold and goods by theft and hid them . 
None in the army knew anything of it, except pos- 
sibly his own family. But when the cause of their 
trouble was known how promptly they exterminated 
it; for they took the man and the silver and the gold 
and the garments, his sons and his daughters and his 
oxen and his asses and his sheep and his tent and all 
that he had and they stoned them with stones, and 
burned them with fire, and then buried them all 
together. After that they went up against the city 
of Ai and destroyed it utterly. Is not here to be 
found the reason why many people labor for a revival, 
but in vain? They have not put away the evil. Let 
all go into the battle with pure heart and clean 
hands. Put away the evil from among you ! The 
inhabitants of Ai as well as of Jericho were utterly 
destroyed. Chapter ix — The Gibeonites by craft 
obtained a league by which their lives were spared, 
but they were made to be servants. Chapter x 
records a narrative that is condemned by some as 
being unreasonable, unlikely and untrue; for the com- 
mander of Israel, when in an important battle against 
five kings, said, "Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon,and 



12 



178 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

thou moon in the valley of Ajalon " until the people 
had avenged themselves upon their enemies. 

Is the Bible philosophical at these narratives, or 
would it not fail to be philosophical if these miracu- 
lous narratives were left out of it? It is proven in 
chapter 1, that all nature conspires to and does clearly 
demonstrate the God of the Bible philosophically, 
and the points of theology shown in these pages show 
the Bible to be philosophical up to this narrative. 
These types are necessary to settle beyond dispute the 
really necessary conditions of human salvation ; that 
the spiritual kingdom of Christ must be set up and 
maintained in the heart. But this narrative shows 
by the type it makes, the importance of the kingdom 
being made perfect in the heart and everything 
worldly or selfish driven out. When Israel was in 
the battle with five kings this state of things was 
brought about expressly to show that the Lord does 
all things needful to reach the salvation of men, for 
in order that the type of cleansing the heart should 
be made perfect, the motion of the planets was 
revoked for the space of one day. It was within the 
power divine to accomplish in any way the destruc- 
tion of their armies, but the necessity was to make 
this very type perfect. Why so? Because men were 
then and are now choosing their side of the army to 
fight, whether for the Lord or for the heathen. This 
choosing does not end with the warfare of this life, 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 179 

but the results of their choice are of endless duration- 
Love and mercy spare no expense to save them that 
harken to them. All is logical. That which is nec- 
essary to be done and is done is philosophical. 

But those men who measure the power of the Lord 
by their own, say it would be impossible to interfere 
with this planet. 

If the diminutive object that Mr. Darwin calls 
"monad" out of which he has evolved over and over, 
again and again, until he has brought all animal ex- 
istence out of it, if one of those little creatures had 
seen one of that bov ? s marbles and would have said 
that there is no power that could handle this vast 
globe, even that would not be a fit figure of the man 
who says that there is no power in existence that can 
handle these vast planets. 

The monad could be compared with a man and the 
marble could be compared with the earth, but the 
man can not be compared with the Almighty. 

Being fully of the opinion that all Bible miracles 
are clearly proved to be philosophical they will not 
be noticed so much hereafter. 

In Judges, chapter first, we are informed that nine 
of the tribes failed to drive out the heathen perfectly 
namely, Judah, Benjamin, Joseph, Manasseh, Epraim, 
Zebulon, Asher, Nephtali and Dan. Chapter second 
says an angel of the Lord came up from Gilgal to 
Bochim and said, "I made you to go up and out of 



180 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

Egypt and have brought you into the land which I 
sware unto your fathers, and I said I will never 
break my covenant with you. And ye shall make no 
league with the inhabitants of this land; ye shall 
throw down their altars, but ye have not obeyed my 
voice. Why have ye done this? Wherefore I also 
said I will not drive them out from before you, but 
they shall be as thorns in your sides, and their gods 
shall be a snare unto you. 

" And it came to pass when the angel of the Lord 
had spoken these words unto all the children of Israel 
that the people lifted up their voice and wept." In 
these verses there is a type whose teachings are of 
vast importance and concern to every person striving 
to reach his highest privilege in the Christian life. 
They had been frequently informed that if they did 
not drive out the heathen perfectly that the heathen 
would be an enemy to their success in their inherit- 
ance through life, and put them in peril of being 
hopelessly cast away. All this applies to every per- 
son who is about to establish a Christian life. All 
worldliness and selfishness must be turned oat of the 
heart and the land possessed. If there is but a very 
little of self or the world remaining, that little will 
make war against you through life, and will keep you 
in the most iminent danger of falling in the wilder- 
ness or meeting death unprepared and never reaching 
the land of promise. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 181 

But the type went further. These people soon 
saw the consequences of their failure displayed, and 
how repeatedly it occurred, and how long it contin- 
ued, and how great the extent of the damage they 
sustained by it. Ten of the tribes revolted from the 
king and set up another kingdom, leaving but two 
tribes loyal to the legal ruler. The ten ran into 
idolatry and all manner of corruption, as the heathen 
led them, until they were cast out into hopeless exile 
and were blotted out as a nation. . Judah was car- 
ried away into a strange land for seventy years, and 
all their pleasant things were laid waste. They 
endured that calamity and distress for the very sins 
into which these heathen led them. All this is a 
message to the Christian to-day, and through all the 
history of the church. These types make a clear 
revelation of the Lord's will and rulings, and of His 
righteous judgment, and His impartial treatment of 
all men on the subject of idolatry. 

Soon after the land was divided and all of them 
settled in their inheritance, we read that the children 
of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and 
involved themselves in deep trouble. The Lord 
raised up judges for their deliverance, but they would 
not hear the judges, but intermarried with the 
heathen and served their gods. Therefore the Lord 
sold them for eight years, and when they cried to 
the Lord He raised up deliverance and the land had 



182 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

rest forty years. They sinned a second time but 
repented and cried to the Lord for help and again 
were delivered. And so it was the third time and the 
fourth time, and the fifth, and the sixth, and seventh 
times until the Lord remembered their ingratitude, 
and refused to help them so visibly as before, though 
he did not forsake them but sent different ones at 
different times to rescue them. But the heathen 
principles prevailed until every man did that which 
was right in his own eyes. 

There's nothing in the book of Ruth to demand 
attention, but come to First Samuel. Here the Lord 
raised up the prophet, Samuel. The first message he 
bears from the Lord was to Eli the priest, and to his 
sons who were the priests of the temple. They 
were wicked and the message said the reason why 
they should be destroyed was because his sons made 
themselves vile and he restrained them not. Now 
Israel was warring with the Philistines, and they 
were smitten before the Philistines with the loss of 
four thousand men. Then the elders of Israel said, 
" Let us fetch the Ark of the covenant of the Lord 
out of Shilo unto us, that when it cometh among 
us it may save us out of the hands of our enemies." 
Now the ark belonged to the Lord and was of high 
importance. When it was among the Lord's people 
by His authority it was a signal blessing to them. 
But when the heathen captured it and thought it a 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 183 

great victory, it was a terrible scourge to them . But 
these wicked priests that were doomed to death? 
assumed the authority to bring it among them, and 
when the ark was brought into the camp of Israel 
without leave or command of its owner, then all 
Israel shouted with a great shout. They were ex- 
cited at seeing the ark brought in a sinful manner 
into a forbidden place, so they uttered this shout of 
their own will. Their hearts belonged to the Lord, 
whether wicked or righteous, and an acceptable shout 
is only produced by the spirit of the Lord, but their 
shout was their own. Mark the result! The shout 
alarmed their enemies and quickened them to the 
deeds of those fighting with desperation. Israel was 
smitten and the two wicked priests, Phinehas and 
Hophni, the sons of Eli, were slain. 

When the word came to Eli that Israel was smit- 
ten, and his sons were dead, and the enemy had taken 
the ark of the Lord, he fell from his seat, broke his 
neck and died. And when his daugher-in-law heard 
that the ark of the Lord was taken, and that her 
father-in-law and her husband were dead, the news 
produced her death also. Now here is lesson by type 
that shows how fathers should treat their wilfully 
wicked children. If the father has given them any 
public charge or interest, and they will not be faith- 
ful in that charge nor be admonished, let them be 
removed and put a faithful man in their place. It 



184 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

also teaches the necessity for men to keep their own 
heart with all diligence, and to distinguish between 
the will of the Lord and the will of their disloyal 
children, and it is a signal warning never to make 
speculation or self indulgence of either the house or 
the work of the Lord, nor hold the will of their 
children to the least extent in the way of their duty 
to their Lord. At Jericho when the Lord's mes- 
senger bade the people shout, then the shout had 
power, and the walls that defended heathen Jericho 
against the Lord fell without the aid of human 
hands. But though the ark was taken by the ene- 
mies of the Lord and the enemies of Israel, and they 
thought they had gained a great advantage in the 
possession of the ark, and brought it into the house 
of their idols and set it by Dagon, their idol, yet in 
the first night Dagon had fallen upon his face to the 
earth before the ark of the Lord. 

They set him in his place again, but the next 
morning they found him fallen to the ground before 
the ark with hands broken off, and only the stump of 
Dagon left to him. But their trouble did not stop 
here, for they were smitten with very strange and sore 
plagues and very many died, insomuch that the Phil- 
istines were vastly more anxious to get the ark from 
among them than they had been to obtain possession 
of it. Whatever the ark may have been a type of, it 
was of so high importance and so essential was the 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 185 

necessity to make it perfect that when the men of 
Bethshemesh looked into the ark the Lord smote of 
the people fifty thousand three score and ten men. 
Verily, what does the ark mean to us? Is it the 
sanctified heart of the Christian? What else in the 
Christian church does the Lord set so much store by? 

After these things the people want a king to rule 
over them, though Joshua had made and ratified a 
covenant with them, that they would serve the Lord 
as their ruler and no other. Joshua, xxiv: 26-28. 

Samuel remonstrates with them against their de- 
mand for a king, but they say, 4i Nay, but we will 
have a king over us." Verily is not this world accom- 
plishing the work for which it was designed in its 
creation before it was called into existence? For we 
see men choosing their own ways. The Lord shows 
right and keeps it before their mi ads, but they choose 
the way of wrong, and the Lord suffers men to do 
their pleasure, so far as wisdom sees a profitable use 
for their action to accomplish the ends of wisdom. 
^Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee, the re- 
mainder of wrath shalt thou restrain." Ps. 76 and 
10. Do not these things prove that whatever wrong 
is not restrained, there is some influence in nature 
that will present it to the minds of men and they will 
do it? Strange that Israel should want a king, but 
the type shows us that men of perfect liberty under 
Christ • will choose bondage to the world, and the 



186 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

bondage is more severe than the Israelites had it 
under King Saul. But the request is granted, and 
the king comes into power, and there are many 
things in his reign that are good and profitable. But 
in his history there are many things that make their 
special revelation clear and very profitable to the 
human race. For although to him was given a new 
heart (1 Samuel, x: 9) he offered a burnt offering (1 
Samuel, xiii) for which Samuel reproves him sharply 
and tells him the kingdom shall not continue with 
him. 

When the Lord tried him he failed to believe and 
trust. All men are tried and some prove faithful. 
But Saul seemed to be firm in his integrity, and so 
immoveable that he would have put his son Jona- 
than to death had not the people rescued him. But 
he disobeyed the Lord when commanded by the 
prophet to go and smite Amalek, and slay both man 
and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel 
and ass, because righteousness required it, for Amalek 
fought with Israel soon after they came out of bond- 
age, and was a type of the Christian lately converted. 
The physical destruction of Amalek must be made 
a perfect type of the spiritual judgment of anyone 
that attempts to turn lately converted Christians 
from the path of truth and righteousness when they 
are aiming to pursue the Christian life until they 
come to Christian perfection. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 187 

The type shows Christians that their only safty is 
to utterly put from them anything or any person 
that would tempt them to commit sin or do wrong if 
it is the right hand or the right eye. 

But Saul was sent on a message and to perform a 
work of vast importance. It was not the life of a 
son that was to be either spared or sacrificed then, 
but it was the heathen king, and the cattle and 
sheep and something in the form of wealth. Obe- 
dience was better then than sacrifice. Now it is plain 
that such a king as Saul was a necessity to make 
revelation by such a life and such a reign, and by 
such actions as a righteous king could not do because 
of contamination, but it did not hurt Saul, for evil 
was his choice. But his history enters into revelation 
and makes it perfect and clear where nothing else 
would. In the history of Saul there is one very 
special and very important truth set forth. That is, 
no person living can be safe if he does not raise his 
Christian standard above all sin, for if any wrong re- 
mains not cast out it will be developed into condemn- 
ing error. 

Another thought is that such may be placed where 
he can do needful work willingly that a righteous 
man could not do, but do himself no harm. u The 
wicked is thy sword." 

Is all this philosophical where cause and effect and 
necessity are seen, and each of them in its proper 



1S8 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

place? Are not these the very elements of philoso- 
phy? 

David comes to the throne. It may be observed 
that the Lord makes revelation out of almost every 
step of David's life, for he is the shepherd boy and 
seems like a cast off, with the older ones all near by 
when the prophet went among them to anoint a 
king. But after all appeared all were refused, yet 
when the shepherd boy was brought he was anointed 
to be the king of Israel. Soon after his anointing he 
was unexpectedly brought before the king and more 
mysterously meets and slays the giant and then is 
very mysteriously preserved from the malice of Saul 
who sought his life. That is the Lord's care over his 
faithful servant, for it is observable that David asked 
the Lord before undertaking any important enter- 
prise, and his success in battle is noteworthy. The 
Lord rules it all, and though Saul and David are 
spoken of as kings, yet they both acknowledged the 
Lord as their authority, and wisdom, and power and 
that he only had ability to rule, although David was 
one of the most distinguished men of all the earth. 

The endless throne of him that inhabiteth eternity 
even that is called the throne of David, and the man 
in whom dwelt all the fulness of the God head bodily 
is called the Son of David. The Almighty says that 
David is a man after his own heart. What higher 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 189 

dignity could gather round the name and memory of 
a man? 

But there is another development made in the life 
of king David, for to him is recorded a crime, and is it 
not the blackest on record? Surely to take it in all 
its bearings it is as dark as any, if not the darkest 
page of the world's history. But how could revelation 
be perfect and complete without this very narrative 
of King David's dealing with Uriah and his wife? 
There are so many items of weight revealed in this 
dark account, but a few only will be noticed. First, 
it proves clearly that no created being could with- 
stand the seductive and tempting power that is every 
where, and did always exist, and is ever ready to oc- 
cupy any and all ground for evil, when not restrained 
by the Almighty's power, whether it was the angels 
that first fell, or the first pair of the human race, or 
whether it was the king of Israel that was guarded 
by experience and revelations and such favored cir- 
cumstances as was King David. 

The second thing to notice is that if the very 
blackest of sins, the greatest of crimes had not been 
committed and pardoned then many persons might sup- 
pose that their sin or crime was so aggravated that the 
atonement could not reach it. But with this revela- 
tion, the convicted murderer, adulterer, imposter, or 
deceiver, if he repent of his wickedness, need not de- 
spair, but see that in the atonement there is merit by 



190 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

which he may be made clean, and if such should be 
lost, this revelation will eternally stand before him 
saying, "Ye need not have been lost, and the throne 
will be eternally guiltless." 

A third item to notice is that all men belong to the 
Lord by a supreme right, and were brought into exis- 
tence to fill some place, to answer some purpose, and 
if the Uriah's that are imposed on are wicked of 
choice they are only fit to make some profitable ex- 
ample in some way. But the man that sins against 
them must bear the penalty. 

If they are the servants of the Lord and He suffers 
imposition to come to them then the Lord is their 
great reward, more to them than all their loss, even 
though they might have owned the world and sacri- 
ficed it. Think of the Nazarine ! Another thought 
is, that sin is punished in the person that commits it, 
either on the throne or in the prison. Think of the 
punishment that so soon followed to the perpetrator 
of so dark a deed! His son dishonors his daughter, 
and another son murders the guilty one. The mur- 
derer raised and led an insurrection against his father, 
the king, and how the king flees for his life before his 
own son ! That same loved son of the king dishon- 
ored the king's house in a way, and to an extent that 
the earth has not its parallel on record. And at the 
last, the death of his son who was pursuing him for 
his life, how it did bleed his heart! But this whole 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 191 

account shows that the Lord will bring good out of 
evil, always does. This narrative is of incalculable 
value. 

1st Kings, i :5— 49. x4.donijah usurped the kingdom, 
and seemed to have gained possession of sufficient 
power and interest to hold it, and doubtless expected 
to take possession of the throne soon, because the 
king was old and helpless. Now, to what power can 
we attribute this turn of affairs? Only that the 
Lord overruled it, because He had chosen Solomon 
both to reign and to do a much greater work than to 
reign over Israel. As Solomon was so distinguished 
a personage, it is proper to consider what is taught 
by the type that his history contains. Was he a 
faint figure of the great Architect of the universe, 
and also of the great ruler? First, in his wisdom, 
and in his work, and also in his greatness, inflicting 
death on certain ones as a ruler, and deciding between 
the two mothers as to who shall have the living 
child. As an architect, or a deviser and designer, his 
wisdom is displayed in building the temple and the 
other buildings, residence, court, throne, and the 
like. The temple as a type, points to the spiritual 
church under Christ, or the spiritual temple that is 
being built of the material prepared in this world, 
like the rocks were prepared in the quarry for the 
typical temple, wherein was the precious corner stone 
or the type of it. For it was the true worship, but 



192 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

was a type of the temple of the heart where the 
kingdom is set up, in which none but Christ shall 
reign. And as the typical temple was built of stones 
that were perfectly prepared for the place they should 
till before leaving the quarry, even so the spiritual 
temple that is being, or will be built out of the 
inhabitants of this earth must be perfectly prepared 
to fill and fit the place designed for them, before 
leaving this world. And as the temple is made of 
the most costly material, so must its antitype be, the 
material is the saved ones of this world, and is the 
price of hallowed blood, and is the most precious 
treasure that the Lord will gather from this earth. 
As the temple was the most costly, the richest, and 
in every way the most splendid building that ever did 
or that ever will grace this earth, even so must and will 
the spiritual temple be in all the vast empire of tha 
universe. Then who has not underestimated his high 
and holy calling? But the temple of the Christian 
heart must not be contaminated with buyers and 
sellers and money changers, nor with the seats of 
them that sell doves, but these must be all driven out. 
But much more is contained in the history of Solo- 
mon, for he, being the wisest man, and having the 
most extensive experience, and also writing under 
inspiration, his writing comes to us by divine author- 
ity, and with double weight, and settles some ques- 
tions beyond doubt; such as, that the life that fears 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 193 

and serves the Lord with a perfect heart is the hap- 
piest life that can be enjoyed, and is secure in the 
end. 

The monster question, polygamy, is by divine 
authority settled in the person and history of Solo- 
mon, for he chose from all the women of the earth 
until he had one thousand women, and after all this 
experience that the Lord gave him for this very pur- 
pose, he says, and it is under inspiration, " Rejoice 
with the wife of thy youth." Not the plural, but 
the singular number. Proverbs 5:18; also Eccl. ix:9. 
"Live joyfully with the wife that thou lovest all the 
days of thy life/' If there is more than one wife, 
none is loved really, and in the nature of things it is 
impossible for man or woman to live joyfully in the 
marriage relation if they have more than one com- 
panion. 

The Lord said to the first pair " The two shall be 
one flesh," but with Solomon's unequalled advantage 
he loved and married many strange women. The 
heathen, then were the sinful principles of the 
human heart now. For Solomon to love and marry 
a strange woman then was the same as for a Chris- 
tian to love and accept in any way anything that is 
not in harmony with true godliness, or to acknowl- 
edge or practice or indulge in it; such as pride, 
malice, hatred or bitterness, or love of the world or 
the spirit or the ways of the world. As the Lord 
13 



194 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

instructed to sever all relation and connection with 
the heathen, and not admit their presence, but drive 
them out of the land, so that veiy command is an 
obligation to all Christians to-day, to shut every 
wrong principle out of the heart, with all evil 
inclination or disposition, and for the same reason 
that the heathen should be shut out of the land and 
from the society of Israel. In both cases they would 
lead the Lord's people into sin; and surely Solomon 
was an example of it, for that mighty man was led 
or inclined by these heathen women into the most 
aggravated forms of idolatry. He built places for 
the worship of idols, and offered sacrifices to the idol 
gods of these women, until the Lord rent the king- 
dom from his house, and it was never restored. Just 
so the kingdom of Christ is rent from the Christian 
heart in this our day, when they indulge in any way 
in the spirit of the world and its ways, and look with 
desire on worldly things. Here is the clearest teach- 
ing that can be on anything, that though a Christian 
minister aspire to the highest degree of usefulness 
even to call their thousands from darkness to light, 
yet if they willfully allow themselves to run into sin 
or wrong principle, it is ruin to them. The great- 
ness of these great men was not of themselves, but 
of the Lord, and they owe to him all they are, and 
all they have, just as much and as perfectly as do the 
minds that are of a hundred fold less magnitude owe 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 195 

all they have and are. Many think if their salvation 
requires them to give to the Lord all they have and 
all they are, the price is too high. Many choose the 
world rather than the obligations of a Christian life. 
They do not see that the only perfect liberty in 
nature is inseparably connected with the Christian 
life. The great men of the world are not brought on 
exhibition for their own personal interest, nor for 
the sake of those who are benefited by them, but that 
the world shall accomplish the object for which it 
was created, that the right should meet wrong and 
conquer it in all its forms and magnitudes. When 
the Lord wants a king David he sends a messenger 
for the shepherd boy, and trains him for the king- 
dom. If he wants a Lincoln to hold the reins of a 
republic, or a Grant to command the army, he calls 
them out of obscurity, and puts them in the highest 
places in the nation. The Lord's work will surely 
accomplish the object for which he designed it, to 
make his revelation perfect, and to utterly subdue sin 
in all its bearings and make an endless exhibition of 
it and its consequences. Surely here is the most logical 
explanation of these parts of the old Bible. Its 
types were all real necessities as well as harmonious 
and plain. 

When Rehoboam succeeded Solomom, his father, 
to the throne, the promise to rend the kingdom was 
soon fulfilled, for ten tribes under Jeroboam set up 



196 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

an independent kingdom at Samaria. Soon after 
they made two golden idols and called them gods. 
They were made in the likeness of calves, and said, 
"Behold thy gods, Israel, that brought thee up 
out of the land of Egypt. " And Jeroboam made 
altars for the worship of these calves, or calf gods, 
and brought offerings upon these altars. 

In all this we see that the Lord suffers men to sin 
just so far as a wise and profitable use can be made 
of the sin, and no further; and when a king, or 
nation, or both, choose the path of delusion, the 
Lord will choose what delusion they shall have that 
he may bring the reward of their delusion upon 
them, Isaiah lxvi:4r. But Israel chose to divide and 
make two kingdoms, and the Lord suffered them to 
do so because they taught lessons by type that they 
could not have taught if they had not divided. 
The Lord does not call on men to do evil that good 
may come, but on men that are willing to be the dupes 
of evil. The evil principle will always occupy all 
ground for evil that is not restrained, and it belongs 
to the very nature of an agent to choose, and those 
that choose the wrong, if the Lord chooses the wrong 
that they may do that it may be overruled for good 
and restrains all else. Surely it is a wise ruling and 
injures no one, but the wickedness shall contribute 
to its own distruction. But the atonement is for all 
whether they are saved or lost, for it is impossible for 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 197 

the Lord to cast off one of His creatures for a sin 
over which they had no agency, and be just. There- 
fore the blackness of crime and all sin is the more 
monstrous because the atoning blood brought the 
pardon which is disdained. In the thirteenth chapter 
of first Kings is a narrative im which there are several 
typical lessons. The Lord sent a man to Bethel to 
king Jeroboam, to pronounce the fate of their idol 
altar, but when he had spoken the words of his 
message the king stretched forth his hand from the 
altar saying, "Lay hold on him. ,, But the hand was 
dried up that he could not full it again to him, and 
the sign was fulfilled that the prophet had given to 
the king. The king, that the moment before had 
said, " Lay hold on him," now requests the prophet 
to entreat the Lord for him, that his hand might be 
restored. The prophet did so, and it was restored. 
Then the king invited the prophet to go with him 
and be refreshed, but the prophet said his orders were 
not to eat or drink in Bethel, nor to return by the 
road he came. All this looks like the man was a true 
and acceptable messenger of the Lord. But on his 
way homeward an old prophet of Bethel overtook 
him and said that he also was a prophet and that an 
angel had told him to bring that prophet back to 
Bethel to eat bread and drink water. The prophet 
disobeyed the order that he had from the mouth of 
the Lord and went back and did eat and drink. Then 



198 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

the prophet that brought him back told him that for 
his disobedience to the Lord he should not come into 
the sepulchre of his fathers. When the prophet 
attempted a second time to return home a lion slew 
him. 

This type is the promise of the Lord to any mes- 
sengers that he may send, under Christian rule, with 
any message, whether in Christian or heathen lands, 
that the Lord will go with them, and whether they 
meet life or death the very wisest and best results 
will be met. Another idea is, that the Bible is the 
Lord's orders to man under Christ, and when we see 
what the Bible says to us, let not the word or in- 
fluence of flesh and blood come between us and what 
the Lord hath said to us, but let us search and know 
what the word is to us, then act faithfully. Another 

7 t/ 

lesson seen in this narrative is that the Lord always 
beholds the sins of men and reproves them, and if 
they do not forsake them He will judge them with 
equity and justice. He had informed the king that 
a wicked course, such as he had pursued, would lead 
to utter destruction, and we see the literal fulfillment 
of all the Lord said He would inflict on both the 
king and the altar, and the name of the man given 
that should perform it, though he was not born, and 
so it all occurred and, as these are types, their anti- 
types must follow r . 

First Kings xvi:29, Ahab comes to the throne of 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 199 

Israel; his reign was wicked and notable for his 
idolatrous connection with Baal worship. His wife, 
Jezebel, with him, bring to the world lessons of 
importance, for when they had lived in the ways of 
sin and of their fallen and depraved hearts, until the 
righteous judgments of the Lord fell on them, they 
were like the people of to-day under similar circum- 
stances, and did not look at home for the cause, but 
charged it on the prophet of the Lord, which was to 
charge it on the Lord. They had forsaken the Lord 
and given themselves to the service of Baal, the most 
popular of idols, and they led Israel from the Lord to 
Baal and would seek the life of one that would re- 
prove them and tell them the truth as Elijah did. It 
is plain that the Bible represents all idolatry as 
Spiritual adultery, the most corrupting, degrading, 
defiling evil that ever did, or ever can, enter into 
human society. But these idolatries were types that 
pointed to the Christian or gospel day and age of the 
world, and they have their anti-types of the present 
time, and in this very highly favored land of the 
LTnited States of America. Idolatry is Spiritual 
adultery to-day as really as it was then, and there is 
likely more of it, and it is practiced under more 
aggravated circumstances, and with vastly greater 
light. The true definition of idolatry is to seek for, 
or strive for, or to accept anything as an object of 
trust, or to in any way rely on anything other than 



200 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

the Almighty. For the Lord is the bridegroom, and 
His people are His bride, namely His church, and for 
any people to seek or accept another source of trust 
than the Lord, is like the wife that seeks and accepts 
her luxuries, or comforts, or pleasures from another 
man than her husband. It is infidelity. Among the 
various forms of idolatry to-day may be mentioned 
free masonry, which claims to be the oldest, and with 
it all like organizations that meet in secret counsel 
for mutual protection or support in times of emer- 
gency, and all such as remove the trust from the 
living God. All this is literal idolatr}^ and Spiritual 
adultery, as well as insurance of life or property, 
lightning rods and the like. 

But of the objects of ungodly alliance, the chief 
may be seen in the medical profession. There are 
but few persons in the world that have an idea of 
the amount of human life that falls a needless sacrifice 
every year to what is called the medical science. 

It is quoted from Dr. Rush's work in these words: 
u Dissection daily convince us of our ignorance of the 
seat of disease, and cause us to blush at our prescrip- 
tions. 1 ' A practioner of more than ordinary reliance 
both for truth and skill, said that in a given time, in 
the town wherein he practiced, there had been about 
one thousand interments ; and as many as one-half of 
the subjects ought to have regained their health. 
Very many writings and expressions tell us that quite 



AND LOG-IC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 201 

a large proportion of the deaths that occur in civil- 
ization is caused by the medical profession, though 
the public will not believe testimony against that pro- 
fession, though themselves be the witnesses. Surely 
Baal was a fit type of them. But men must die. But 
a more burning shame for civilization is that when 
our friends are dead, and we give them a respectable 
burial, the grave is robbed of its sacred trust; the body 
is gone! Not only so but cases are not wanting pub- 
lished by the press, in which persons have been mur- 
dered expressly for dissection, and it has been pub- 
lished that some very popular institutions have had 
their dissection tables furnished with subjects that had 
been murdered for their use expressly. 

One young man recovering from fever was induced 
into a thick woods. A strong man bound his body, 
round arms and hands with a strong sash made for 
the purpose, then covered the face with a plaster 
made for the purpose of hastening death and prevent- 
ing alarm, but he uttered one shriek in the scuffle; 
two men heard it and reached him in time to save 
him. It was found that the man was hired by an in- 
stitution not far away. Search was made, and there 
was found evidence that various ones who had been 
missed years before had ended their days there, and 
proof was found that for a number of years had 
murdered subjects for dissection. This was published 



202 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

in a church paper several years ago, the particulars 
having been forgotten. 

A case was published in Cincinnati, about the year 
1884, of a principal telling his resurrectionist that he 
must have a subject this week if he. the resurrection- 
ist, had to tap somebody on the head, (testimony so 
published.) The resurrectionist was a colored man, 
who took whisky to a house where three colored peo- 
ple lived, an old man and his wife and niece, and gave 
them of the whisky till opportunity offered, and then 
tapped the three on the head so quickly there 
was no time for alarm. He cleaned up the* place and 
took the bodies to the place appointed, and received 
$30 each for those bodies. The resurrectionist was 
put on trial, but no account taken of the man that 
hired him to do the murder. The Baal cruelty was 
terrible, but when a habit of that character is spread 
over civilization, Baal only could make a type of it. 

But the destruction of human life bv medicine and 
the robbing of the graves of the same bodies that died 
under the influence of their treatment, both fall very 
short of being the greatest objection to that antitype 
of Baal idolatry. But the man obstetrician may well 
be considered so. 

In solution of Bible problems, there is an expres- 
sion on that subject that is offensive to some, but 
herein consider the Word, on the subject. When the 
serpent tempted the woman to eat of the forbidden 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 203 

tree, she answered that Grod hath said we shall not. 
But how often must we find that Grod hath said any 
one thing to make it valid to us? Will one time es- 
tablish the thing that is said? In Proverbs Chapter 
vi:27 it says: 

Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes 
not be burned? 

28th. Can one go on hot ooals and his feet not be 
burned? 

29th. So he that goeth into his neighbor's wife: 
whosoever toucheth her shall not be innocent. 

In 27th and 28th verses the strongest figure in na- 
ture is brought with which to compare the topic un- 
der consideration. The first clause of the 29th does 
not convey sense only to define the topic to be adul- 
tery, but it does that unmistakably. 

The second clause of the 29th verse defines what 
adultery is more in particular. Now it is impossible 
to see a less meaning in these brief expressions, than 
the going in to his neighbor's wife in the first clause and 
the "whosoever toucheth her v in the second clause of 
the 29th verse, makes the two acts equally guilty, 
and means the same thing, and both alike are adul- 
tery, and that is forbidden in the seventh command- 
ment. 

In 1 Timothy ii:15, there is a promise to woman at 
such a crisis on certain conditions, but it is not if she 
have the doctor. Is that promise to be relied on? 



204 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

But the passage quoted in Proverbs clearly shows 
that what God hath said makes the man official at 
child-birth a species of adultery. Exodus xx:14, is 
the seventh commandment in which God hath said, 
"Thou shalt not commit adultery." How will that 
compare with Baal. 

Now, let all the earth say what they choose concern- 
ing the propriety or impropriety of men practicing 
obstetrics. Here is one, 4 'God hath said they shall 
not," and he has shown us that it is adultery, and 
that is the blackest crime that man can commit 
against man except murder. Also the Bible shows 
clearly that woman practiced these things when the 
Lord ruled his people, and it is said by one writer on 
the subject that it was never known among Christians 
until the crown of France introduced it for purposes 
of concealment, probably in the fifteenth century. 
But it was practiced among the heathen likely in the 
days of Solomon, and the passage herein considered 
was to forewarn Christians that the practice would as 
surely burn the spirit of Christ out of their heart, as 
fire would burn the clothing or the feet, if it come in 
contact with them. And not only so but read French 
and English authors, Robert Gooch and others, on 
female complaints and note their counsel to the 
young physician how to treat the female that comes 
to his room for advice, or treatment, that if the case 
will admit of sach idea, call it sexual derangement 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 205 

and propose an internal scrutiny, and says, ''Some 
may object, but press it, press it, if they do not need 
it, you do need it in your experience and in your 
practice." So that this boasted science of medicine 
claims the mastery over every species of female chas- 
tity and delicacy or modesty. 

Shall not a just God be avenged on such corrupt 
nations as these? But if this planet was not ordain- 
ed for the absolutely necessary design to develope the 
fruit of wrong in all forms and magnitudes, then 
how would it be possible to account for the existence 
of these monstrous things? Consider how wide 
spread these monstrous habits are, and how could 
society be less than a mass of corruption? 

Verily the type that Baal made was terrible, but 
the antitype is incalculably more so. These Bible 
types are messages to the church and to the world to- 
day, and they should not be trifled with. We can 
not afford it. It was our God that prepared them. It 
was our God that sent them to us. It is our God 
that will require them at our hand. Let the Ahabs 
and Jezebels of all the church be warned if they will* 
but if they will not God is not mocked. 

But man or woman that wishes to be governed 
by what God hath said, come out from among them. 
You will have to oppose church and state, your own 
preacher, and likely nearly all the members of society 



206 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

you have hitherto lived in, but fly, fly, fly like Lot 
did from Sodom. 

You may think that I might well fear to take such 
ground against all the civilized world, and so I have 
feared the last fifty years nearly, but now I see that 
what God hath said in the record that he has left us, 
so clearly binds his words to that meaning and can 
not admit of any other, that it seems not only admis- 
sible, but duty clearly requires it of me. And though 
these practices are so nearly universal with a very 
few conscientious exceptions, yet that is no reason 
that we should not accept what God hath said, u Ye 
shall not." Let God be true, but every man a liar. 
But Baal, the type, seemed to the prophet Elijah to 
be even more universal, for he answered the Lord 
that he only was left in Israel, and they sought his 
life to take it awav. 

Now tell us all you divines in the orthodox world, 
is there or is there not wisdom in these scriptures, and 
if revelation could be perfect without these passages? 
If Baal was not a type then it is the greatest batch 
of nonsense that the whole human race finds to read, 
but if it was a type, it was needful that it should 
show its antitype with perfect clearness, and that 
the antitype would be something vast in its nature, 
but nevertheless it was necessary to suffer such a state 
of things to exist, that every form and degree of de- 
pravity and sin and wrong in its blackest and deepest 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 207 

colors should be developed, and put on endless exhib- 
ition, and at the same time make revelation that will 
eternally show the throne to be guiltless. But the 
entire amount of evil is the work of the universal 
enemy, the mischevious and vast power of wrong. 

The distinguishable difference is seen in the end to 
which these two remarkable men came, both the king 
and the prophet. The king with the kingdom at hi& 
command sought the life of Elijah, for the king had 
put Naboth to death for his vineyard, and the dogs 
had licked the blood of Naboth. The prophet had 
met and reproved the king, and said to him, u In the 
place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth, shall 
dogs lick thy blood, even thine," and not long after- 
ward the blood of this self same king Ahab was licked 
up by the dogs in the very spot where the the dogs 
had licked the blood of Naboth. 

But what comes of the prophet that stood single 
handed and alone against the king and his corrupt 
kingdom? We see him and Elisha going together, 
and coming to the Jordan, and the waters part and 
they walk over unmolested. They walk on a little 
farther and the Lord sends a chariot and horses of 
fire, and takes the prophet without his tasting death. 
Verily, verily, it is profitable to serve the Lord. 

If 1 did not think that I had proven and established 
the philosophical relation of all that class of passages. 



208 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

I would give it some attention here, but I think it 
not necessary. 

But how is this God-forbidden and God-dishonor- 
ing practice to be overcome, seeing it is so near uni- 
versal that no sufficient number is left to overcome 
it? If one household raise a family that keep them- 
selves pure from those habits that the Word forbids, 
that household does overcome for so much of the 
world as stands in opposition to it, if that is a whole 
county, or a whole State, or the country entire, if 
there are none to stand with it. But the heathen 
world that does not practice such things will be wit- 
nesses for the Lord that this promise is not a failure 
to them, but was ever true to them when conditions 
were met by the creature. 

Hence there are living witnesses in every age to 
indemnify the Lord beside the word of revelation that 
is given to the world. 

And this Word that says, 'Thou shalt not," even 
that word will stand exonerated at the judgment in 
every particular. 

2 Kings ii:23-27. When Elisha was mocked by 
the children he cursed them in the name of the Lord, 
and two bears tore, and we suppose killed, forty-two 
of them. The Lord brought all this about, to show 
by its type the guilt both of the children who were 
made an example of and suffered, and also of the 
parents who suffered their children to pour their con- 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 209 

tempt on either the cause, or the people of the Lord, 
to any great extent. 

2 Kings v:l-27. It is not hard to understand the 
type that Naaman's leprosy makes. Naaman in the 
type is the unrenewed heart, and the leprosy is the 
sin of heart and life. The prophet was one who 
spoke and did just what the Lord gave him to speak 
and to do, and he represented the Lord. When Naa- 
man felt the need of healing and heard of the Lord's 
power to heal, he went to seek the Lord to be healed. 
That is the sinner who is convicted and seeking par* 
don from the Lord. The prophet sent a man to in- 
struct him what to do. And the Lord sends the minister 
to instruct the spiritual leper. When he was offended 
it represents the pride and wisdom of this world that 
thinks the gospel is too common, too simple, too low 
for them, and they are offended. When he was ad- 
monished by his servant that it was easy to do, and 
he decided to try, it represents those who humble 
themselves and accept the gospel. The cleansing the 
leprosy is the best type of conversion that nature 
affords. Naaman wishes to reward the prophet, but 
the prophet disdained to take money or reward. So 
does every servant of the cross disdain to take reward 
for instructing others in the way of life. 

The servant of the prophet goes after Naaman and 
takes a reward from him, and when he returned he 
did not tell the prophet what he had done; but the 
14 



210 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

prophet told him, and reproved him and said the lep- 
rosy of Naaman should cleave to him and his seed 
forever, and he went out a leper white as snow. 

Here the servant typified anyone living among 
Christians, and professing to be a Christian, but who 
covets, and obtains money or goods in some way that 
is not clearly right, and tries to cover it up with false 
pretense. Whether it is a true Christian, or a pre- 
tender only that does the like, the spiritual leprosy 
will cleave to him. The narrative is full of valuable 
lessons. 

In the sixth chapter is revealed the Lord's care 
over His servant. When Syria warred against Israel, 
the Syrian king learned that the prophet Elisha 
would tell the king of Israel all the Syrians' plans, 
and the king of Syria sent horses and chariots and a 
great host to take Elisha and his servant. In the 
morning the servant saw the great host that had 
come to take the two men, the prophet and his ser- 
vant, and he was alarmed. But Elisha said, 4 *Lord, I 
pray thee open his eyes that he may see," and 
the servant saw the mountain full of horses and 
chariots of fire round about Elisha. And when they 
had come down to him, Elisha prayed to the Lord to 
smite the people with blindness. How short were 
these two prayers of the prophet! But how promptly 
they were answered; the one for the servant to see, 
and the other for the people to be made blind. Here 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 211 

the man they were sent to arrest said to them, ''Fol- 
low me and I will bring you to the man whom ye 
seek. 1 " They followed him blindly but willingly into 
their enemies' capital, where, if they had been treated 
as they would have treated their enemies, they would 
have been hopeless as well as helpless. 

Elisha prayed that they might see, and they saw 
themselves in the midst of Samaria. This type is a 
promise of the Lord to all that separate themselves 
from the world, and serve the Lord in spirit and in 
truth, for the world will be arrayed against them to 
a greater or less extent. But let all such observe a 
few things, as do not say or do anything that is 
wrong, be reserved, let the Lord rule the whole mat- 
ter, and victory to them is certain. These promises 
are given in words, but words may be wrongly inter- 
preted or misunderstood, but the type cannot. When 
the Syrians came to Samaria, Elisha would not smite 
them, but bade the Samaratans to give them food and 
drink, that they might be refreshed and go home to 
their masters. 

Now, herein was the wisdom and power of the 
Lord revealed to the heathens of Syria, that the 
weapons of the spiritual warfare are not carnal but 
mighty, for when Israel had the Syrians in their 
power, the prophet had great provisions made for 
them, and when they had eaten and drank, he sent 
them away and they went to their masters. So the 



212 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

bands of Syria came no more into the land of Israel. 
But if tliey had smitten them with sword and bow, 
they would have been back with regular army to take 
vengeance on them. But when the prophet treated 
them with good for evil, it had a power over them 
that sword and bow could not have. The type is of 
great value, and proves that the spiritual weapons of 
warfare are stronger than carnal weapons, when 
viewed in a physical light. 

But Syria must make another type of great value, 
and it was by the king of Syria gathering all his 
host and going up and beseiging Samaria until the 
famine was so great that women were so pressed with 
hunger that they cooked and ate their own infant 
children. When the king knew such to be the case 
he sent messengers to put the prophet Elisha to 
death because he had not obtained relief of the Lord, 
but soon went and revoked the order. Then the 
prophet told them there should be plenty by this 
time to-morrow, but one of them doubted the word. 
The prophet told the one that doubted that he should 
see it, but should not eat of it. 

There were four lepers shut out of the city and 
they came to the Syrian camp to beg food, but found 
the army had fled in great alarm and left their pro- 
visions. The Lord had caused them to hear a great 
noise, like the approach of a great army, and the 
Syrians, supposing there was another army hired to 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 213 

come against them, retreated in haste, leaving every- 
thing behind them. The four lepers told their breth- 
ren in the city, and at the hour the prophet had said 
that food should be sold so low in the gates of 
Samaria, so it was done. But the man who had 
doubted the word of the Lord, by the prophet, was 
put in charge of the gate of Samaria, and when he 
had seen the food sold the people trampled on him 
and he died. By this type we are taught that the 
Lord rules the wars of the earth, did then and does 
yet, and always will. He also rules the destiny of 
nations as well as individuals. Tn these types there 
is the clearest revelation that the Lord has the most 
absolute control over all nature, and that it is as easy to 
control anything out of its common order as it is to 
control the same things in their natural order. All 
nature belongs to the Lord, and is as perfectly at His 
command as the hand of a man is at the man's com- 
mand; and there is no exception in nature, neither 
earth, nor air, nor sea, nor beast, nor fish, nor fow T l, 
nor insect, nor creeping thing. When these things 
are all seen and clearly understood, the servant of 
the Lord can trust him perfectly until the last 
moment, and when they are realized, it is impossible 
to trust anything else. 

In the seventeenth chapter there is a type of that 
part of the visible church of Christ that professes to 
be the disciples of Christ, but does not possess, nor 



214 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

try to possess the spirit of Christ. From the event 
of Israel becoming a separate people from Judali, 
and assuming another government they seemed to 
sin almost continually. Only when the Lord would 
give them over to an enemy that would oppress them, 
they would cry to the Lord and He would raise up 
deliverance for them. These are true types of 
the great army of Christians that do not exact of 
themselves a holy life, but take an erroneous course, 
at first very little, and that little leads to more until 
they delight in something sinful, until the day of 
trouble comes, or grief, or want. Then they think 
on the Lord, and call upon Him and He relieves 
them, but only to repeat the same thing over and 
over. And the of tener it is repeated the more hard- 
ened they become, until forbearance ceases to be a 
virtue, like it did with Israel, and the Lord does with 
them as He did with Israel, for He cast Israel out of 
His sight, so it is written. For Assyrians, a much 
mightier people than was Syria, that warred with 
them before, carried Israel away captive into their 
far-off land from which they were never suffered to 
return, but dwelt with heathens until they themselves 
became heathens. So must it be spiritually with 
such as live in the church, but do not live in Christ 
nor have Christ live in them. When the Lord cast 
off Israel He restrained the tribe of Judah for very 
much further usefulness; but when Israel went into 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 215 

hopeless exile it was but just to them, bat was over- 
ruled to make the plainest possible type of the mil- 
lions that profess Christ and wear the highly exalted 
name of Christian, but do not possess nor desire to 
possess His nature. Millions to-day may see in that 
type the relation they sustain to the latter, and if 
they do not move from the ground they now occupy 
they will be driven into hopeless exile, spiritually. 
But Judah was the type of the Lord's favored peo- 
ple, and was known to be so, for when Senacherib, 
king of Assyria, invaded Judah, also supposing it to 
be a small thing to take Jerusalem and make a clean 
sweep of the entire people and made his lofty threat- 
enmgs, the Lord heard them and said, " I will defend 
this city to save it for My own sake, and My servant 
David's sake. And it came to pass that night that 
the angel of the Lord went out and smote in the 
camp of the Assyrians an hundred and four score 
and five thousand. And when they arose early in 
the morning behold they were dead corpses.'' Now was 
not the city of Jerusalem defended most signally? 
But why could it not be done for the sake of 
Jerusalem and the Jews, for it was done for the 
Lord's sake and for His servant David's sake? Be- 
cause Jerusalem and the Jews were too wicked to be 
worthy of such favors, and it was needful to make it 
known that it was not done for their sakes, but for 
the Lord's sake. Then why suffer the whole trans- 



216 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

action at all? Because that very narrative was need- 
ful for a t}*pe of the Lord's power and care over 
Christ's true people, of whom the Jews were a type, 
and it was also needful to make a revelation that is 
not made anywhere else, and revelation must be per- 
fect. But they were saved for the Lord's sake, and 
the Lord was identical with the Son of David who 
was promised, and who was the root as well as the 
offspring of David. The Jews and their city were 
required much longer to perfect that revelation that 
the Son of David designed to make perfect by them. 
All philosophically reasonable, and the Bible could 
not have been perfect without this very narrative. 
It was soon made manifest that it was not for the 
sake of the Jews, nor their citv, that the Lord de- 
fended them against the Assyrians, for the wicked- 
ness of the Jews soon became so great that they, 
like Israel, were carried away into captivity though 
not hopeless like Israel. In this carrying away 
into Babylon is a type of backsliding from a 
sanctified life. For certainly Judah was the type 
of the perfect Christian, and their land was the 
type of the kingdom of Christ in the Christian heart. 
When the narrative of their captivity is read of 
their servitude, the scornful relation thev were held 
in, how they were despised and set at naught, and 
taunted, it is seen to be the clearest type of the hor- 
rors of the life of the backslider. When the 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 217 

enemy carried away to heathen Babylon all the 
precious things of the temple, and all the people of 
importance and burned the house of the Lord with 
fire, and burned all the valuable houses, and broke 
down the wall of Jerusalem round about, so that all 
seemed like desolation, it represents the despair that 
reigns in the backslidden heart. When the holy and 
beautiful house in which their fathers worshipped 
was burned with fire, and all their pleasant things 
laid waste, the type is perfect of the backslider. 

But though the Lord drove hispeople into bondage or 
captivity into a heathen land (that was a true type of 
the backslidden heart, the most desolate relation that 
any one can sustain), yet the Lord was most signally 
with them there, and revealed Himself to that 
heathen nation by them. He also distinguished His 
people in a very notable manner, as in case of Esther 
and Mordecai, when Haman took measures to have all 
the Jews put to death, and the day was appointed for 
the execution of that work, and Haman had made a 
gallows fifty cubits high on which to hang Mordecai. 
He came into the court to speak to the king to hang 
Mordecai, but the Lord had brought all things in 
readiness to send Haman to do Mordecai honor. A 
few minutes later, and the queen tells the king that 
she and her people are decreed to become the victims 
of Hainan's malice, and as the king's anger kindles 
at Haman, one tells him of the gallows that Haman 



218 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

had prepared for Mordecai. Then the king gave 
orders to hang Haman thereon. How remarkable 
that from the time Haman came into the court to 
request the king to hang Mordecai on the gallows 
Haman had prepared for him, that Haman himself 
had not time to be at rest until he was a lifeless lump 
of clay hanging on the gallows whereon he had 
designed to hang Mordecai! Verily, verily, 0, man, 
it is safe to trust in the Lord, though all may seem 
dark even to the last moment! How valuable to the 
people of the earth are the types and lessons brought 
to view by the Babylonian captivity! What revela- 
tions are therein made of the Lord to that heathen 
people, and also to all the world, as well as to the 
church! Nebuchadnezzar's dream (recorded in 2d 
chapter of Daniel). He forgets his own dream, and 
he would put his wise men to death if they did not 
tell him his dream and the interpretation. The Lord 
was bringing all this about for the purpose of making 
a revelation of Himself to that heathen people, as 
well as all people to whom revelation would come; 
everything is so wisely ordered that his condescension 
and favor to man were as valuable and praiseworthy 
as if there had been no other object in view but the 
benefit of the human race, and yet that was the 
smallest part of the design of revelation. But 
Daniel, this disdained captive, in the strength of his 
Lord steps into the presence of the monarch with 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 219 

astonishing boldness and says, t; We will tell the 
king his dream.'' Likely nc one believed he could, 
until he spoke with such assurance and told the dream 
that the dreamer himself had forgotten. This was 
no doubt the most wonderful talk that ever fell on 
the ears of that monarch, and it prepared him to 
believe the interpretation which Daniel, the captive, 
told him. But what a change of affairs was dis- 
played the next moment, for that monarch of the 
world that would have disdained to suffer the captive 
Jew to come into his presence in times when there 
were no disturbing influences around him, now falls 
upon his face and worships Daniel, and commands 
that they should offer an oblation (Dan. ii:46) and sweet 
odors to him, and acknowledge Daniel's God to be the 
true God. After all this, the king made the golden 
image, but the Lord's people would not worship it, 
and the penalty was that they be put into the fur- 
nace, the heat of which was so terrible that to look 
into it was like looking into the sun. But when it 
came to the test they chose to be put into the fur- 
nace, rather than to bow or fall down and worship 
the king's idol. When they were put into the fur- 
nace the heat was so great that it slew the men who 
took them up. But the three that were cast into the 
fire met the form of a fourth, that was like the Son 
of God, and the fire did not hurt them. Then was 
Nebuchadnezzar, the king, astonished, and said 4 'Did 



220 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

not we cast three men bound into the midst of the 
fire?" and they said, " True, king." And he 
said <; Lo, I see four men, loose, walking in the midst 
of the fire, and they have no hurt, and the form of 
the fourth is like the Son of God." But mark how 
the king was changed toward these men, for he said 
to them, u Ye servants of the most high God come 
forth and come hither." And when they came out 
there was not a hair of their heads singed, nor the 
smell of fire about them, nor were their clothes 
changed. What a type that is, that has cheered the 
hearts of millions of men and women since that vast 
exhibition of divine power which was then, and is 
ever round and about the true servant of God! And 
this very type is the strongest promise that it is, or 
could be possible to make to the human race, that 
whosoever will choose the Lord for the object of their 
services and fidelity that when the enemy surrounds 
them with trouble and danger and threatens death in 
its most frightful form, let them be assured that the 
Lord is there; let them be firm and faithful as the 
Hebrews were, and the Lord will bring the best pos- 
sible results out of it, which will abide everlastingly. 
But besides all this, including the millions that liter- 
ally perish in the fires of persecution, there are other 
millions that have been in the furnace of affliction, 
or tribulation, and this very narrative has strength- 
ened them and carried them through with the bright- 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 221 

est victory. The form of the fourth is always there. 
No less profitable to the Christian is the narrative as 
a type, of Daniel when he was cast into the den of 
lions. The government officials envied Daniel be- 
cause he was wiser and stood higher in the king's 
favor than they. But how should they get him 
removed out of their way? They saw the unswerv- 
ing fidelity of Daniel to his God, and they might by 
that means succeed. So they obtained a decree that 
no one should ask any petition of any one for thirty 
days, except from the king only, and that those who 
should must be cast into the den of lions. But when 
Daniel knew the writing was signed he opened his 
window toward Jerusalem, and kneeled upon his 
knees and prayed, and gave thanks before his God as 
he did aforetime. Then they brought the matter 
before the king and claimed the decree, and Daniel 
was cast into the den of lions. But Daniel's God was 
there, and the lions were innocent as kittens. Did not 
the Lord and Daniel have a pleasant night together 
among the lions? But the king could not sleep, and 
at the dawn of day he was at the den and called 
Daniel with an interest, and also a suspense that was 
unknown to him before. But Daniel answered, and 
the king commanded, and Daniel was taken out of 
the den safe and sound. Then the king commanded 
to bring his accusers and to cast them into the same 
den, and their wives and their children. But the 



222 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

lions broke their bones before they reached the bot- 
tom of the den. How very plainly this type points 
to these very days and years of the nineteenth cen- 
tury! For when the Son of David was on trial 
before the governor w T ho was judge, he (the governor) 
said, " Take ye him and crucify him, for I find no 
fault in him." Millions of others since that have 
been the objects of the malice of the wicked because 
they could find no fault in them, and they want to 
cast them into the furnace, or the den of lions, or 
crucify them. And when the law does not permit 
these modes of taking vengeance, they crucify them 
in their reputation, or their usefulness, or in their 
property, and often assassinate them. An} r way at 
all, but get them out of the way when we can find 
no fault in them. 

These last two narratives are recorded in the book 
of Daniel, but were transacted in heathen Babylon, 
when Israel were captives in that heathen land, and 
although they well merited the terrible judgment to 
be driven into captivity, yet it was so wisely over- 
ruled that the page of their history while they were 
in Babylon, was as conspicuous as any other part of 
their history. The types are eminently useful to the 
Christian church, showing the dreadful relation and 
condition of the backslider, as well as how sin was 
met and conquered, as in case of Haman and Mor- 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 223 

dicai. These types show Christians just how to 
meet and conquer sin. 

First and second Chronicles: The most important 
passages in them were noticed in first and second 
Kings, and as the object of this brief writing is to 
compare the scripture with the introductory chap- 
ters, so far as is needful to show clear reason and 
harmony in all the Bible, pass Chronicles, and con- 
sider the book of Ezra. 

The people of Israel have been noticed as the type 
of the world in sin, of the conviction of the peni- 
tent, of the new heart, or conversion to Christ, and 
the Christian led through difficulties, and of the 
Christian searching the scriptures (the law from 
Sinai). Christians see in the scriptures the promise 
of the perfect heart and life, in which Christ would 
reign (Canaan). But they fear, and turn their course 
into the wilderness, and cross the Jordan into the 
promised land, and become a type of cleansing the 
heart, and of the Christian's inheritance. But for 
their unfaithfulness, backsliding, they were driven 
into captivity (Babylon). But now we come to 
Ezra. Now is the book of Ezra the type of a re- 
vival of pure and true Godliness in the Christian 
church, and the building up of the Spiritual house 
of the Lord? If this is the sense in which we 
should understand Ezra, and the design for which 



224 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

the book of Ezra was written, it will be well to 
notice narrowly what lessons the type teaches us. 

The first thing to notice is that the Lord called 
Cyrus king of Persia both into power, and also to 
use his power to move Irael into action, and the call 
or appointment was predicted before Cyrus was born. 
But he came into power and issued his proclamation 
to Israel to go and build the house of the Lord at 
Jerusalem, and delivered to the Jews all the vessels 
of the temple to cany back to Jerusalem. So the 
Lord moves every true revival of his cause in the 
world in all ages of Christendom. But many of 
them went and set everything in order, and gave 
money for the expenses. (That was the road to a true 
revival then, and is yet.) Then they built an altar 
and presented their offering to the Lord (the people 
offering themselves) and they established the regular 
sacrificial service of the Lord. When they had the 
foundation laid they set all things in their place and 
worshipped before the Lord, and there was a loud 
shout and much rejoicing. So it is with Christians 
when the Lord's work moves favorably. Now, when 
their adversaries heard that they were building the 
temple they came to Zerubbabel and to the chief of 
the fathers, and said unto them, "Let us build with 
you, for we seek your God as ye do, and we do sacri- 
fice unto Him." But Zerubbabel and Joshua and 
the rest of the fathers of Israel said unto them, u Ye 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 225 

have nothing to do with us to build a house unto the 
Lord our God, but we ourselves will build unto the 
Lord God of Israel, as king Cyrus, the king of Per- 
sia, hath commanded us." But soon as they were 
refused by the builders they showed more plainly 
who they were, for they were enemies with all their 
ability to be so. They hindered them by all means 
in their power, and wrote to the king, the successor 
of Cyrus, until they obtained a decree to cause the 
work to cease. Now here is the opposition that the 
true work of the Lord meets when true Christians 
are favored with a revivhh The work stopped for a 
time, but the Lord raised up two prophets, Haggai 
and Zachariah, and encouraged the work. 

The work was resumed and so was the opposition. 
Their enemies used all means in their power to hin- 
der the work, but they could not until the matter 
came before the king. But when the next decree 
came the command was to let them build the house 
of the Lord, and furnish them money and food and 
beasts for sacrifices, and that these should be given 
them daily, and that whosoever should alter this 
word let timber be pulled down from his house and 
being set up let him be hanged thereon. Here is a 
guarantee to the man of the cross that is engaged in 
a revival and is sure that himself walks with the 
Lord, let the opposition take what course it may, let 
him be confident that the Lord will make the effort 
15 



226 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

serve the best purpose that it can serve, whether 
there is a visible revival or not. This very narrative 
of Ezra is for the express purpose of showing that 
the truly called and sent servant of the cross will 
have enemies anywhere only among the cross bearing 
Christians. Then these enemies were forced to be- 
come helpers in the work of the Lord which they had 
tried so hard to destroy. So it often occurs that the 
strongest enemies to a revival become converted, and 
wheel into line and are profitable helps in the work. 
One very important feature of this type that is seen 
in Ezra is that when the Lord sends his servants 
to build up his spiritual house in the form of a revi- 
val, that any person, whether high or low, either in 
the church or in the world, who would introduce and 
recommend doctrines or practices lower than the 
Bible standard of purity, piety and godliness should 
be promptly rejected, and any church organization 
whose principles are lower than the Bible should also 
be promptly rejected. Purity is worth more than 
numbers, and to trust in the Lord for strength and 
for success is better than the strength of the world, 
only keep the offering pure. Ezra would not be com- 
plete if that part had been omitted, and the temple 
could not have been built if they had joined with the 
heathen to build it, for it was not the property of 
men, and its design was the type of spiritual purity. 
In chapter seven Ezra and others of Judah are 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 227 

commissioned to go to Jerusalem from Babylon and 
carry a great amount of wealth which was to be used 
on and about the temple. The journey was long, re- 
quiring nearly four months. The road was full of 
danger for the enemy mentioned in the narrative was 
likely to attack them, as were also robbers, pirates 
and various other companies of men seeking plunder 
of whomsoever they met. But Ezra proclaimed a 
fast to seek the favor of the Lord, for he said he 
was ashamed to require a band of soldiers and horse- 
men to help them against the enemy in the way, be- 
cause he had professed to the king to trust in the 
Lord. u So we fasted and besought our God for this, 
and he was entreated of us." 

Now what was all this written here for? Profes- 
sing Christian tell us, if it was not to show that the 
Lord alone should or could be trusted by his true fol- 
lowers. Then where is the foundation on which you 
build your hope, if you enter the lodge of any secret 
order for the hope of reliance on them ? 

I once heard in a lecture of a Free Masonry that a 
man at sea with the ships crew was taken by pirates 
and the crew murdered, but he gave the masonic sign 
of distress and found a brother among the pirates 
that saved him. Three other narratives were related 
of the same character, one among land pirates, but in 
all four of the narratives the company were all mur- 
dered but one, and that one was saved only by finding 



228 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

a brother Free Mason among the murderers to whom 
they were oath bound in a brotherhood that was 
stronger than the bond that binds murderers and 
pirates together. And still there are Free Masons 
who profess to be bound in a brotherhood to the Lord 
Jesus Christ! Shame, shame, shame! 

One more narrative in Ezra: that is concerning the 
people of Israel who had married strange wives or 
heathen women. In all places where such wicked- 
ness is written in the Bible it is the type of any one 
professing to live the Christian life, but holding fast 
to something else as a reliance but the Lord. The 
spirit of Christ demands that Christians shall rely on 
Christ alone, and that it is their voluntary choice. 
All other sources of reliance must like the strange 
wives, be put away, for they were all put away with 
all their children. Not only so but when the pro- 
clamation was made for all to attend to this business 
those who did not come up within the three days pre- 
scribed, forfeited their substance and were separated 
from their people. Is this type worth the notice of 
smart men, wise and learned? Or mav not the heath- 
en, which is the infidel now, say to the Christian 
world, ' k Where is your Clod?" A little comment on 
Ezra and Nehemiah and their important uses or the 
objects they were designed to accomplish. 

To make the real design plain in all its bearings is 
likely as difficult a task as any part of the Bible, for 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 229 

if nothing can be seen in them, but the record or his- 
tory they furnish, they only seem like other histories 
of governments that have only men for their authors 
and would be unworthy of a place in a revelation 
made by infinite wisdom, designed for endless useful- 
ness. 

If they enter into the legislative records of a polit- 
ical power, then they are entitled to full credit by all 
political powers on earth. But if they are a type of 
reviving the interest of the salvation of the entire 
human race, and as plain as if the type was the only 
object for which they were made, then that is a sec- 
ond item embraced in these narratives that is worth 
all they cost, and fully worthy of their author. But 
if, at the same time, the same writing is a complete 
type of the revival of the pure, true doctrines of the 
Bible, in the church and in the world, (for in the type 
the walls were the protection of Zion, and in the anti- 
type the pure, true doctrines of the Bible are the pro- 
tection of the Christian church,) then that is a third 
item worth the whole cost of the whole transaction, 
and worthy of its author. A fourth item is that they 
make a revelation of the Lord on the subject of re- 
vivals which is not made elsewhere and each one dif- 
ferent from the other. 

But a fifth item of importance in Ezra and Nehe- 
miah is that they are the clearest type of certain sins 
of the Christian dispensation, as how sinners will 



230 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

stoop in their wickedness in trying to defeat a revival 
of the Lord's cause in the world. 

Sometimes when the true messengers of the Lord 
will raise the standard of the cross where the Lord 
puts it, and hold the written word up to its high and 
holy eminence, the messengers of Satan will come 
and propose to join them in the revival. But they 
only seek its corruption and ruin, or sometimes they 
try to pour their disdain on the work to destroy it, 
like as when the wall was to be built. All of these 
very different items and others, are each one made as 
plain as if the sole object had been for the sake of 
only one of these. And still some doubt who their 
author might have been, and some in high places in 
church are hunting over ancient and modern litera- 
ture to find the names of those who wrote the several 
parts of the Bible, in order to establish their author- 
ship. Is it any wonder that there are infidels in the 
world ? 

Ezra has been considered a type of revival in the 
Christian church, not of doctrines, but the increase 
of numbers and powers of the church. But Nehe- 
miah is the type of reviving the doctrines of the 
scriptures; for the walls were to Zion, or Jerusalem, 
the same as the true doctrine of the scriptures are to 
the Christian church. In either case these were the 
defenses. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 231 

Now, when Nehemiah knew the distressed condi- 
tion of Jerusalem, he wept and mourned certain days, 
and fasted, and then besought the Lord by prayer 
and confessions of sins of Judah; beseaching the Lord 
for Jerusalem and the Jews. After the fasting and 
prayer, the king gave Nehemiah permission to go to 
Jerusalem with an escort, and also the privilege of 
timber to make the gates that the work might be 
commenced. But so soon as the work started, the 
heathen enemies of the Lord were devising every pos- 
sible means to stop the progress of the work, for they 
taunted them and tried to deceive and alarm them. 
So it was when the reformers, Luther, Calvin, and the 
Wesleys and others, commenced to build up new sys- 
tems of doctrine, or really to rebuild the old system 
that, like the walls had been broken down, and it is the 
same way yet. If the most corrupt pretentions are re- 
proved, the enemies of the truth will break the re- 
formers down if possible, but the Lord has left them 
instructions in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. 

Nehemiah breathed forth the most devout and ear- 
nest prayer, and so do the Christians. The heathen 
conspired % to come and fight them, and stop the 
work. Our laws forbid that in its literal form, but 
they will come and want to debate, or get up a dis- 
pute, or anything to succeed in causing the work to 
cease. But they of old made their prayer to their 



232 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

God, and set a watch against them day and night, and 
this is the course of the Christian. 

Nehemiah inspired the people with boldness, say- 
ing, u Be not afraid of them," and so does the Chris- 
tian leader encourage the people to fight, not with 
carnal weapons, but those that are mighty through 
God to the pulling down of strongholds. After that, 
half of the men held weapons of defense, while the 
other half wrought in the work. "They which builded 
on the wall, and they that bare burdens, with those 
that laded, everyone with one of his hands wrought 
in the work, and with the other hand held a weapon. 
For the builders everyone had his sword girded by his 
side, and so builded, and he that sounded the trum- 
pet was by me. And so they labored and held wea- 
pons from the rising of the morning till the stars ap- 
peared. And they lodged in Jerusalem for purpose 
of defense, and none of them put off their clothes ex- 
cept for washing.'" 

Now, in these last remarks we see the estimate that 
the Lord puts on the establishing and maintaining 
the pure and true doctrines of his word. The carnal 
weapons and the vigilance seen in the narrative are 
the true type of the spiritual contention for the pure 
theology in the Christian church, for to be acceptable 
the doctrines must be pure. 

In the fifth chapter, the poor in the land said they 
had come into distress because other men had their 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 233 

land, and their children were in bondage, and they 
could not redeem them. 

Now here is one of the best lessons that can be 
found anywhere. Nehemiah told those men that had 
taken for pledge the land of their poor brother, that 
after the ability of himself and those that were with 
him, they had redeemed their brethren, the Jews 
which were sold to the heathen, and said, "Will ye 
even sell your brethren?" But when he set up his 
own course of action, and the nobles knew it, they 
could not answer him. They restored to every one 
his inheritance. The example of Nehemiah was a 
controlling power over the people. 

And now, Christian man or woman, if the Lord 
has committed to your trust or to my trust, either 
time, or money, or property, or influence, what higher 
use can we make of it than to induce others to works 
of righteousness? But when their enemies heard 
that the wall was built all but setting up the doors, 
they sent unto Nehemiah four times to meet them in 
some village, that they might do him mischief. But 
he answered them that he was doing a great work — 
<l why should the work cease?" What an unanswer- 
able question when one is doing the Lord's work with 
success. 

But after all this the enemy sent again to 
Nehemiah, saying that he and the Jews were pre- 
paring to rebel, and that it should be reported to the 



234 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

king. But Nehemiah replied to the message that no 
such things were done as he said, u but thou feignest 
them out of thine own heart," and again he utters 
his remarkable prayer to his God for help. After all 
this they said to him, <c Let us shut ourselves up in 
the temple," lest their enemies should come at night 
and kill Nehemiah. But he asked in reply if such a 
man as he was should flee, or go into the temple to 
save his life? " 1 will not go in." But he that said 
it was hired by the enemy that they might make 
Nehemiah afraid and sin in the act of obeying them. 
But again Nehemiah flies to his stronghold in fer- 
vent prayer to his God for help and defense. It is 
noteworthy that the last item on record before the 
wall was finished was that Tobiah and Sanballat 
hired that false prophet to put Nehemiah in fear, 
that the work at the last might be a failure, the most 
perfect type of the way that the world and the 
worldly element in church bring their force against 
any upbuilding of the cause even in the days of 
gospel light. But the type goes on and shows more 
of the opposition the servants of the cross may 
expect when they are engaged in a revival of either 
doctrine or practice of Bible purity. 

Not unfrequently the opposition is found in high 
places in church, for Tobiah and Sanballat were the 
leading men in all the opposition to Nehemiah and 
to the work that his Lord had sent him to accomplish. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 235 

■ 

Nevertheless there were leading men of the Jews 
who should have been faithful to the Lord and His 
servant Nehemiah, that were allied to Tobiah, and 
conspired with him against Nehemiah and against 
his work. But after all this incessant opposition to 
the Lord's work these conspirators furnish another 
type of the difficulty that the true servant and peo- 
ple of the Lord, and truly called and sent ministers 
of the cross have to contend with in the nineteenth 
century. In chapter thirteen we read that Elishia, 
the priest, having charge or oversight of the cham- 
ber of the house of our God, was allied to Tobiah . 
"And he had prepared for him a great chamber^ 
where aforetime they laid the meat offerings, the 
frankincense, and the vessels, and the tithes of the 
corn, the new wine and the oil, which was com- 
manded to be given to the Levites, and the singers, 
and the porters, and the offerings of the priests."" 
Here we see that when this Tobiah could not prevent 
the true doctrines of the Word from being estab- 
lished (or the wall built), that he effected an alliance 
with the priest, the man having authority. So the 
openly professed enemy of the Lord aspires to a high 
place in the Lord's church by his alliance with its 
lawfully installed ministers and with all his corrupt 
life, and bold opposition to the Lord's servants and 
their righteous work, he is installed in the temple 
and makes carnal use of that part that was sanctified 



236 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

to the sacred purpose of storing of the support of 
the Levites, and the singers, and the porters, and the 
offerings of the priests. These were put out, and 
heathen man with his heathen customs was put in 
possession. Is not this re-enacted when the worldly 
minister is installed in any church, and introduces 
the festival, the supper, the feast, the play, or any 
other entertainment, but the solemn worship of his 
Lord? 

Now when the Lord's true minister of the cross 
meets opposition to the true doctrines, and must 
fight through on every inch of the road, but finally, 
by clear immovable argument establishes the whole 
Bible in the light of the strongest reason, then the 
Sanballats and Tobiahs will step forth and say 
<l Well, I always knew that. I always believed and 
held that the only correct doctrine and they assume 
to have been the main element in bringing out their 
doctrines, but really they were the Tobiahs to cor- 
rupt thern." When Nehemiah came to Jerusalem 
and learned what was done, he cast out all the house- 
hold stuff out of the chamber and commanded the 
chamber to be cleansed, and brought again the 
things that belonged there. 

Now can there be found in this whole earth, out- 
side of the Bible, any two interests so far apart in 
point of time and circumstances so different, that the 
one will so minutely represent the other, as Nehe- 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 237 

miah represents the Christian church to-day, and the 
establishing of the pure doctrines of the Bible? And 
still there are those in high relation that are hunt- 
ing testimony to the authorship of parts of the 
Bible. The Sanballets and the Tobiahs never can 
find it. 

The book of Esther has been considered in con- 
nection with the captivity into Babylon. 

The next department to consider is Job, and as the 
object of these pages is to prove that the Bible is the 
first principles of philosophy, the root and ground of 
all philosophy, the several books of the Bible will be 
noticed in a philosophical light. The book of Job is 
perfectly philosophical in its principles, whether it be 
fact or fiction, but I will treat it as I believe it to be, 
a literal fact, because the narrative shows one great 
overruling power, infinite in knowledge as well as 
power; and also a secondary power, the source of 
wrong, but entirely subject to the greater power. It 
shows that man is an instrumentality in the hand of 
and at the disposal of the greater power to accom- 
plish wise and necessary purposes. It also proves the 
warfare for which man was created, and shows that 
affliction is needful, and that if the soldier of the 
cross is called to bear the affliction the rewerd is 
greater than the affliction. It also shows that the 
great Almighty can support men to endure anything 
that is needful to be endured, and he does not do 



238 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

work that is not necessary. Job is richer in example 
than in type, but it is a type also, for it shows clearly 
what may occur to holy men and women in the gos- 
pel age of the world. The afflicted Christian with 
clear conscience may see in Job that the Lord rules, 
and all will be right in the end. Job proves that 
man may be perfect in this life, and it is not for 
reward, but for principle. It is the choice of the 
changed heart. It shows further that the Lord may 
take men through the most bitter experience, and 
that they will afterwards rejoice at the results of 
their experience. It may fall on those that are right- 
eous in the sight of the Lord, but it will work out for 
them a far more exceeding and eternal weight of 
glory. This narrative shows that true, spiritual 
Christians ma} r so study the Lord and His nature, and 
His will, and His manner of dealing with men, that 
they may see and know, and say things that will sur- 
prise and alarm the unthinking people around them, 
Job ix:24 and various other places, but they will be 
right in the sight of the Lord. The book of Job 
teaches that the Lord can sustain us under the most 
bitter circumstances that is possible to man, and is a 
written letter to every perfect-hearted man or woman, 
and it is from the Lord. Let the fire be hot as it may 
be (for surely Job's furnace was hot as was the fur- 
nace into which the Hebrews were cast at Babylon), 
He that calls them is with them, let them hold fast 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 230 

and conquer. This furnace of affliction, and the 
fiery furnace, have no doubt sustained millions under 
the sharpest trials, both in literal and figurative fire. 
The book of Job is a signal reproof to all the 
earth that does not know the Lord, for Job had 
studied the Lord correctly before Revelation was 
written. The law of nature is sufficient to lead the 
mind to the author of nature, and obtain divine 
acceptance. The laws of nature govern the uni- 
verse, but are under the direct control of its author to 
carry out his purposes of wisdom in all nature- 
Revelation is an additional favor for which those 
that have it are very responsible for the improve- 

c 

ment of so great an advantage. But the main 
design reaches far beyond the mere interest of the 
human race; its duration and usefulness are of end- 
less design. The human race is the instrumentality 
through and by which this revelation is made, and to 
make revelation is one of the principal designs for 
the creation and existence of man. The faithful 
may trust in any affliction, and the faithful trust will 
be supported. Our Lord and captain and com- 
mander and our leader in the great spiritual warfare r 
suffered trouble, affliction, persecution and death, at 
the hands of his enemies. It required him to do so 
to be a conquerer, and the same is required of all his 
fellow soldiers if they prove conquerers. Let them 
trust, the reward is sure. From the third to the thir- 



240 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

teenth chapter there are two features worthy of 
special notice: First, the language of Job exhibits a 
highly cultivated mind, a wise and thoughtful 
improvement in and of his life, and a vast power of 
intellect. His language was the language of desper- 
ation. His words struck with terror and awful 
weight, and utterly confounded those that came to 
try to comfort him. But he still held fast with 
unshaken confidence to his Lord. The other thought 
is that men may be overzealous in a mistaken cause 
and under wrong impressions, and may say many 
things out of place, and suppose they are right when 
they are wrong. We may also learn from Job what 
are the conditions of a true, reliable faith, for he held 
fast to his integrity or confidence in the Lord when 
he was under the sharpest trials that ever fell on 
flesh and blood, so far as we have any record. In the 
thirty-first chapter his words show the condition on 
which his faith was perfectly immoveable. The 
ground of human faith and hope is in the Lord, but 
the condition of faith living and growing so as to 
become perfect and imperishable is in the agent, or 
in the man. For when a man or woman studies, 
learns, and sees that the Lord loves, reproves and 
saves those that keep a pure heart and life, and a 
clear conscience, and can stand before the searcher 
of hearts and lay claim to a perfect and blameless 
life and heart, then such faith cannot be moved, and 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 241 

that we see in the thirty-first chapter of Job. In the 
first twelve verses he treats of purity of "heart and 
life and a clear conscience, and says if he is not clear 
let judgment fall on him. From the thirteenth to 
the twenty-second verse he makes his servants and 
the poor equal with himself, and called for a curse to 
fall upon him if he failed in this. 

From the twenty-fourth to the twenty-eighth verse 
he protests against idolatry, submits the guilty to 
punishment, and then says he has not returned evil 
to his enemies, that he had cared for the stranger and 
that he had not covered his transgressions. He also 
said that he had not feared the contempt of the mul- 
titude, or of families to keep silence in the presence 
of wrong, and then appeals to the Almighty, and to 
his enemies, and declares that he obtained his land 
honestly. l 'If not," he says, tw let it bring forth this- 
tles and cockles instead of wheat and barley.' 1 

A faith that is held on such conditions cannot fail, 
and will never deceive its possessor, and it did not de- 
ceive Job, for as the Lord approved Job at the first, 
so he approved him at the last, and blessed him more 
than before his sore affliction. But as the book of 
Job has been considered as a logical teacher, another 
thought will be in place. That is that the three men 
who first came to comfort him were so astonished 
that they sat down with him upon the gronnd seven 
days and seven nights and none spoke a word to him. 
16 



242 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

After all this time he broke the silence and cursed 
his day. By this time these men recovered from their 
astonishment so far as to venture to reply to him, but 
how they wronged him in their three replies apiece. 
But he stood in the divine presence and did not fear 
or blush to declare that his life was righteous. Dur- 
ing all this Elihu was a spectator, and was wrathy 
at the three men because they had condemned Job, 
but had not answered his arguments. Then he spoke 
very confidently of himself that he would show Job 
wisdom, and spoke with great boldness and at some 
length. But what did the Lord say to the self-im- 
portant Elihu? He said, u Who is this that darken- 
eth counsel by words without knowledge ?" Do not 
these narratives exhibit self-important, conceited hu- 
man nature? But after the ends of wisdom were 
accomplished by Job's affliction, then the Lord ap- 
proves him, and condemned the three that had con- 
demned Job, and conferred a name on him quite 
above the name and memory of the greater part of 
the great men of the earth, as well as long life and 
much wealth. Surely there would have been a want 
in revelation if the book of Job was not in it. Surely 
the book of Job is a logical teacher and the Bible 
could not be complete without it. 

In the first chapter of Job, verse 11, Satan answered 
the Lord and said, "But put forth thine hand now, 
and touch all that he hath and he will curse thee to 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 243 

thy face. And the Lord said unto Satan, behold all 
that he hath is in thy power, only upon himself put 
not forth thine hand/' And Satan sent the heathen 
to take away the oxen, and the asses and to slay the 
servant. 

He caused fire to fall and consume the sheep and 
the servants who kept them, and sent other heathen 
to take away the camels and to slay the servants 
that kept them. He employed the wind to destroy 
the house in which Job's ten children were feasting, 
and they were dead. But in that fight Satan was 
overcome by Job. In Job ii:5 Satan challenges for 
another fight with Job if he could afflict his person. 
But the Lord said y "Behold he is in thine hand, but 
save his life. 1 ' Immediately Job was smitten with sore 
boils from head to foot, and that was not all, for his 
wife said to him, "Curse Grod and die." But the 
affliction did not stop here, for the three professed 
friends of Job agreed to meet Job at the same time 
to comfort him, but their comfort proved to be the 
most severe abuse. Still there was more to come for 
Elihu came up with the highest boast that ever a 
man made, but his comfort was no better than that 
of the other three. 

Did not the Lord give him the sharpest rebuke 
that ever was given to a man? Chapter xxxviii, 2. 
But why would the Lord give Satan power over the 
best man in all the earth? How can theology and 



244: SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

philosophy marry at this point? A little correct 
thought will make both perfect in the narrative given 
of Job. 

If Job had not been given into the hand of Satan 
Job could not have overcome him. Again, when 
Satan gave the challenge to fight with Job, if the 
Lord had not suffered them to meet and fight, then 
there would have been an excuse in the mouth of 
Satan even at the judgment, and ever after, that his 
opportunities to gain and hold the world had not 
been perfect. But when he got all he asked for, or 
could hope for, and was so perfectly overcome, then 
Jofrs part of the warfare was perfect. 

It was a real necessity that such a victory should be 
gained over Satan^ power then and there, and Job 
was the highly honored person that was appointed to 
make that signal display. As this world and the 
human race have their existence expressly for th e 
warfare, they will certainly make it perfect. Hence 
it need not be thought strange concerning the fiery 
trial which is to try the soldier of the cross, but 
rather think it the precise object for which they live 
to meet and fight, and overcome the enemy of the 
cross. When Satan sees the steadfast servant of 
Christ, faithful and true in all points of duty and of 
conscience, and throws out his challenge, neither the 
soldier of the cross nor his Lord can offord to let this 
challenge pass, but the soldier must meet and fight 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 245 

and overcome whatever enemy is brought before him. 
Was not this warfare inaugurated by the ordaining of 
Jesus Christ, the mediator and the atoner and the 
reigning Sovereign of the earth, and the Creator, who 
suffered the world to be given into the hands of the 
wicked that the wicked might be overcome by their 
own works? Hence those that voluntarily choose 
the wrong are led by its champion, but that entire 
element must be overcome by the soldier of the cross, 
and that must be done in every age of the world. 
Hence if none but Job was found in the earth to 
stand perfectly in the cause of right, then Job alone 
overcame in and for the age in which he lived. And 
if there were seven thousand to stand with the 
prophet Elijah, these overcame all the rest of the 
world that did not act with them in the Baal idola- 
try. The most terrible afflictions generally fall on 
the most sanctified lives. Is not this all the reason 
why the narrative of Job is found in the Bible? And 
is not the reason an all-sufficient one? 

PSALMS. 

The book of Psalms contains an immeasurable 
amount of instruction of exceeding great value. Many 
of the Psalms describe the life of Christ in this world, 
each in its own way; and also his death, his humility^ 
how he was persecuted, and as a man of fervent 
prayer, returning good for evil. They also tell of hi 



246 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

submission to all the abuses of the people for whom 
he came to die. The Psalms contain the most exalted 
examples of thanksgiving and of praise, and show so 
many reasons why men should praise the Lord for 
his wonderful works to the children of men, for his 
mighty acts, for his boundless mercy, for subduing 
the enemies of the righteous, for the reliability of 
his word, and for the abundance of his promises, 
giving comfort, peace and joy. The Psalms are an 
exhaustless fountain of excellency, greatness, wisdom, 
and comfort. In them the heart can find a sovereign 
balm for ever} 7 wound, a cordial for every fear. No 
one can estimate the worth of the Psalms. 

Proverbs and Ecclesiastics. These writings of 
Solomon have several advantages that some other 
writings have not. Solomon was naturally wise, and 
he was endowed with superior w r isdom because he 
asked the Lord for it of choice rather than for riches 
or long life. Added to that he was favored with the 
spirit of inspiration, and probably had the largest 
experience of any one up to his day, and equal to 
any since his day. Thus he was prepared in the 
providence of the Lord to do the work the Lord 
designed that he should do, to contribute his part in 
making perfect the Lord's revelation and to give the 
world and the church these very important parts of 
the scripture. 

These writings of Solomon are a mine of wisdom 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 247 

and knowledge. They are also a mint of value in- 
finitely more precious than gold. They show the 
road to a life of purity, and they are a lamp and light 
to enable us to shun the road to corruption and 
death. There is found the contrast between virtue 
and vice, right and wrong, wisdom and folly, and 
these instructions for old and young, for ruler and 
subject, for parents and children, for husband and 
wife, and for all conditions in life. 

The song of Solomon contains figurative expres- 
sions, showing the love that our Lord entertains for 
the true spiritual church that he bought with His 
own blood, and that he holds to be His own bride. 
It also shows the love that the true spiritual church 
entertains for their Lord that redeemed and saved 
them, in whose hearts the kingdom is set up, Luke 
xvii:21. These are given under the type and figure of 
the highest ecstasy of the marriage relation, and 
make a revelation of the love of Christ to the 
church, and the church to Christ that is not made 
elsewhere. It is not adapted to, or designed for a 
free and indiscriminate use in public. It is for the 
rational, honest thinking Christian, and especially 
those that live in marriage relation, and that appre- 
ciate and love as that relation was designed, and as 
the very word implies. All truly loyal companions 
in marriage can appreciate the song of Solomon, and 
see the depth of idea that these expressions convey 



248 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

in regard to the love that our Lord bears to His 
church and people. So the Lord makes a perfect 
revelation of Himself in these particulars. When 
the song of Solomon is regarded in the light of rea- 
son all must see that these parts of Scripture could 
not be omitted without leaving the Scripture imper- 
fect. This is true because the marriage relation was 
ordained and held so sacred expressly to teach the 
human race, and especially the church, all the rela- 
tions the church and the world sustained to their 
Creator, but in particular, the relation the spiritual 
and true worshippers sustain to the bridegroom who 
bought them and made them His bride. 

Now this part of the book of Revelation that em- 
ploys for its figures the highest esctasy of the mar- 
riage relation, fails to show the slightest hint of 
plurality in companionship, but in every expression 
the language conveys the idea of one. All the writ- 
ing of Solomon, if rationally considered, will prove 
the nature of His errand into this world; and a very 
conspicuous part of that was to definitely settle, and 
to show on logical ground, the true nature and de- 
sign of marriage. The fact that he had taken to 
himself, according to the laws that then existed, one 
thousand women, together with all his superior 
advantages, would make him, of all men most fit to 
speak on the question of marriage and the relation of 
the sexes. And besides what he says in the song he 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 249 

speaks with a certain voice in both his other writings. 
In Proverbs chap. 5, vers. 15 to 19: u Let thy foun- 
tain be blessed, and rejoice with the wife of thy 
youth." Eighteenth: "Let her be as the loving 
hind and the pleasant roe; let her breasts satisfy thee 
at all times, and be thou ravished always with her 
love." Thus the man is directed to make one only 
his companion, and give one wife the affection of his 
heart. But there is also an admonition to let her be 
his own, and not a stranger's with him. And it is 
set forth in the clearest manner that the marriage 
relation shall not be infringed, neither on the part of 
the husband nor the wife, in no way embracing all 
the pretentions of the medical profession-, including 
obstetrics. Proverbs, chap. 6, vers. 27, 28, 29. The 
27th verse reads, "Can a man take fire in his bosom 
and his clothes not be burned up?' 1 Verse 28th: 
"Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be 
burned ?' ! The questions are their own answers and 
the strongest figures in nature. 

The 29th verse contains two clauses, very short. 
The first does not show the sense of the passage, but 
clearly defines the criminality of what is said in the 
last clause, but the last clause shows the sense of the 
three verses and gives a clear definitation of what is 
forbidden in the passage. 

The verse reads, "So he that goeth in to his neigh- 
bor's wife, whosoever toucheth her shall not be inno- 



250 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

cent. v Touching the neighbor's wife even profes- 
sionally, so called, is adultery in the light of this 
passage. 

These passages secure the right of man or woman 
to have their companion exclusively without violation 
by any living, but if the rule is violated it is adultery 
as naturallv as that fire will burn. Men and women 
have equal rights in the relation. There is no poly- 
gamy lawful to either man or woman. The same 
sentiment is reiterated in Ecclesiastics ix : 9. It reads 
u Live joyfully with the wife whom thou lovest." If 
there is more than one none can be loved. 

I have noticed such parts of the scriptures as my 
purpose required, to maintain the clearest philosophy 
of the scripture. It has been seen that the atone- 
ment was the starting point of all nature, and necessa- 
rily must precede all things, and that by him, the 
atoner, were all things created that are in heaven, 
and that are in the earth, visible or invisible, whether 
they be thrones or dominions or principalities or 
powers. All things were created by and for him. And 
He is before all things and by him all things consist. 

As the prophecies come next under consideration, 
it is naturally supposable that the atonement and 
atoner would be a conspicuous part of prophecy. 

Let us commence with the book of Isaiah, which is 
a peculiar part of the inspired volume. Notice his 
bold manner of speaking of things in the future, his 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 251 

very plain predictions and descriptions. When the 
fulfillment occurs it is and has been so plain that 
the prophecy cannot fail to be remembered. Among 
these bright prophecies the leading thought is the 
Messiah — his kingdom and everlasting reign, his life, 
his death and his final victory. These are all seen in 
many of the chapters. Chapter ii:l-5; iv and vii: 
10-16; ix:6-ll; xi:l-12; xii and xxiii:16-18; xxxii: 
1-8; xxxv and xl:l-12; xlix from first to middle; li, 
li, lii, liii, lv:1.7; lix:16-20; lx, Ixi, lxii and lxiii. 
There is much more, but not so plain to the unthink- 
ing mind. But with all these very plain prophecies 
very plainly spoken seven or eight hundred years be- 
fore they came to pass, still there are persons to dis- 
pute their truth. 

There is no discord or lack of harmony in any of 
it, but it is philosophical when the propecy came to 
pass so clearly that common sense cannot evade the 
fact that events which are seen are the fulfillment 
of certain prophecies, and surely the atonement and 
the atoner are the great source and central thought 
of the book of Isaiah. 

The peophecy of Jeremiah contains instructions of 
highest importance, and worthy of the most minute 
consideration, because the highest use of the record is 
to instruct on certain points not readily seen without 
the closest attention, such as the spiritually adulter- 
ous character of the Jews, and how far they had 



252 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

forsaken the Lord's pure ways, and still counted 
themselves righteous, and showing also how narrow 
is the Christian's path. They were the type of the 
church under Christ, and also a most signal warning 
not to be led or influenced by a ministry that does 
not follow Christ. So completely were the false 
prophets disguised that Jeremiah, the true prophet « 
of the Lord, thought they were true prophets and 
charged the Lord with greatly deceiving Jerusalem 
and the people, because the thing that these prophets 
had said had not come to pass. See chapter four, verse 
ten, where the prophet said, "Ah, Lord God, surely 
thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem 
saying, ye shall have peace, whereas the sword reacheth 
unto the soul." So completely were these pretending 
prophets disguised that even the truely called and chos- 
en servant of the Lord was confounded when the word 
that they spoke professedly in the name of the Lord 
was not fulfilled. The type is seen in the profess°d 
ministers of Christ to-day, who come not as the self- 
denying soldiers and followers of him that suffered 
and died for the truth's sake, to endure hardness as 
did their Lord. But they aim to lord it over God's 
heritage, and if they do not succeed in that, they are 
not a success. 

But the type shows where these preachers origi- 
nated, that nearly fills the Christian church, but do 
not reform the church or the world. They are 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 253 

defined in chapter xiv and 14th verse, in these words: 
" Then the Lord said unto me, the prophets prophesy 
lies in my name; I sent them not, neither have I 
commanded them, neither spake I unto them. 
They prophesy unto you a false vision and divina- 
tion, a thing of naught, and the deceit of their 
heart." Now, if the prophet Jeremiah was so 
deceived, what might we think of the professed lights 
of the world to-day? Is it too much for every man 
and woman that has hope in the Lord to search for 
themselves until they really see and know the true 
path of right in the light of the word of the Lord? 
But the minister that the Lord calls and sends to-day 
as He called and sent Jeremiah twentv-four hundred 
years ago, will find when he would preach the most 
needful truths a large element in the visible church 
that will hate and persecute him and often would, if 
they could, have him put to death. The self-com- 
missioned minister speaks to them smooth things, 
and it is much more pleasing to the unrenewed heart 
than the truth. The Lord's ministers are in the war, 
it is their very business to be there, and if they are 
true soldiers they will, like their Lord, find enemies 
till their struggle is ended by death. If it is not 
lawful for their enemies to put them to death, then 
they will crucify them in their usefulness, or in their 
good name, or put them down some way, but put 
them down. These servants of the cross can read 



254 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

Jeremiah and see that the Lord has promised them 
that kind of a life, by the record of what the Lord's 
prophets suffered at the hands of the wicked for 
the truth's sake, and they will take courage and go 
on. One very striking feature of Jeremiah is that 
the Lord sent by Jeremiah, offering the people par- 
don and protection if they would turn from their 
wickedness, aggravated as their sins were described 
to be; but they treated him with disdain and derision 
and continued to treat His messengers so until the 
enemy came and carried them away, according to the 
word of Jeremiah from the Lord. These types 
pointed to the Christian era, and make revelation 
perfect at a point where nothing else does. 

The idea has been advanced that the captivity was 
the clearest t}^pe of a backslider from a sanctified 
life. But their return to the land was the type of a 
sanctified life and was a promise, by type, to those 
that have gone back from a sanctified life, yet still 
love the cause, and do not deny that love, but repent 
as sincerely as the Jews did, that they may return to 
that peace from which they fell, though their temple 
will not be to them so grand. Their repentence is 
read in the one hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm r 
and in various other scriptures. 

How striking is the similarity between the typical 
people, the Jews, and the anti-type in the Christian: 
era! The Jews were carried captives to Babylon and 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 255 

remained seventy years. But the Lord prepared 
Cyrus to issue his proclamation to the Jews to return 
to Jerusalem and build the city and temple and wall> 
and to re-establish their religion under the divine 
laws, and to restore the Jews to their inheritance. 
After the Lord had restored them to their much de- 
sired rights and prosperity under divine protection 
for a time, how soon they retrograded into habits of 
wickedness! But the period drew near when their 
Deliverer should come, and He did come, but He did 
not suit them. As a nation they rejected Him, and 
the authorities bought Him from one that was will- 
ing to sell Him for thirty pieces of silver, and they 
crucified Him. But after all that they still claimed 
to be the Lord's people. Soon after that they ceased 
to be a people, but were scattered and driven into every 
nation, and they remain a typical people to this day. 
But when in the providence of the Lord the true 
spiritual church was passively brought into the 
moral wilderness of oppression, trouble, poverty, per- 
secution for Christ's, and for conscience sake, they 
remained so for a time and times and half a time, or 
not far from twelve centuries. The Lord did not 
send Cyrus, the monarch, to rescue them, but he did 
send a young, single-handed priest, Martin Luther, 
to break the power of oppression, and to set the 
gospel in a much clearer light, in the sixteenth cen- 
tury. And in the eighteenth century he set up a 



256 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

government, like the republic of Israel, that acknowl- 
edged no king but the Lord, namely, the United 
States. Its example has weakened the power of 
tyranny in all nations, and it is called an asylum for 
the oppressed the world over. 

Now we change our ruler by electing a new one, 
but we do not elect a new Lord, neither does he 
change. In view of the fact that the church, after 
being rescued from tyranny and put in possession of 
liberty and independence, has so mingled with the 
world as to lose her identity, and corrupted her 
doctrines and has become so weak as to be a prey to 
the infidel, is the fulfillment of these types and signs 
to us in the nineteenth century? Does the same God 
reign over us to-day that cast off the Jews into 
every nation? If so, are there any sign? And is 
that sign to us destruction? Shall we fear? But 
the human race was created to do what they are do- 
ing, or would any one dispute the truth of that? If 
so, then do you hold that the Lord has been deceived 
in His design or His object in bringing and keeping 
the race in existence? Surely not. But if so much 
sin should be permitted as should answer the ends of 
wisdom, and should remain while it is useful, and no 
more, then when the philosophy of this is seen, who 
can be certain that the ends of wisdom might not 
come nearly being accomplished, and if so the end 
draweth nigh. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 257 

Now a nation cannot rise or fall, or exist only by 
and under the ruling of divine providence. Most 
cities of the east were promised to be destroyed, and 
these promises have not failed. Some of these are 
Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Tyre, and various others, 
and Moab, Ethiopia, Egypt, Israel and Judah, and 
other countries and cities. 

In the twenty-fifth chapter of Jeremiah is a prom- 
ise of the destruction of all nations, commencing at 
the city that was called by his name. This begin- 
ning certainly has been most signally made in the 
city of Jerusalem. Now is all this done without an 
object? Can any believer so regard it? Surely not. 
But the nations that choose their own wavs and de- 
light in their abominations, Isaiah lxvi, 3-4, the Lord 
also will choose their delusions, and suffer them to 
practice only such as will bring about the wise and 
necessary ends for which the world and the race of 
man were created, namely, the exposition of, and the 
perfect conquest over sin. And as nations choose the 
ways of delusions, the Lord gives or rather permits 
them to choose such delusions as will be held on re- 
cord and exhibit national sins showing their natuie 
and their reward. And when any nation runs its 
wicked course as far as can be made pofitable then its 
destruction is at hand. Sin cannot be permitted 
without wisdom and necessity in permitting it. Here 
is reason for the rise and fall of nations, and also for 
17 



258 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

the destruction of all nations when they have answered 
the ends of wisdom in this world. 

It is not for the sake of the nations that the Lord 
keeps them in existence. But they are needful to 
bring the cause of wrong where it can be overcome 
by the right and to make a show of it openly, tri- 
umphing over all the power of wrong. 

The five chapters of Lamentations set forth the 
sentiment of all pure hearts when their friends are 
in trouble, and they are a confession of sin, and the 
full justifying of the Lord in national judgment. 

Ezekiel prophesided near the time of Jeremiah, 
and the objects of both prophecies were of kindred 
character, both showing the people's idolatry and 
adultery, both spiritual and physical, and their cor- 
ruption of various kinds, and inviting them to turn 
from their sins and find mercy. Both prophets tell 
the people their sinful course would end in their cap- 
tivity, and Ezekiel speaks of the Christian Church in 
various ways. Under the figure of dry bones he 
shows something of the superior condition of the 
Lord's people after the Holy Ghost was given, and 
speaks of the judgment of Gog and Magog, and of 
the history of the temple and its appendages. Some 
of this is in the future, but what has past is in such 
complete harmony with all the rest of the Bible that 
we can well afford to trust for those parts that are 
not yet seen. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 259 

Prophecy of Daniel. In the first chapter there is 
a notable event; Daniel and his three friends being 
determined to keep themselves pure and faithful, 
would not eat of the king's diet lest it might defile 
them. 

How signally the Lord helped them to carry out 
their purpose, and so signally distinguished them. 
For in the second chapter the king dreams and for- 
gets his dream, but demands of the wise men to make 
known to him the dream and the interpretation. 
They declare that no man living can do that. 

The king commands them to be put to death, but 
Daniel rescues them by telling the king his dream and 
the interpretations, and when this was done that 
monarch of the earth fell down on his face before 
Daniel and worshiped him, the Hebrew captive. Was 
ever such a change heard of before or since? What 
a revelation it makes of the Lord of how he rewards 
his perfe3t, faithful followers or servants, and how it 
shows what absolute power the Lord has overall men 
good and bad. 

In chapter third the king set up a golden image 
and commanded all people to fall down and worship 
it, and if they would not they should be cast into the 
fiery furnace. But these men, Daniel's friends, re- 
fused to worship the image. Then the king in his 
wrath ordered the furnace to be made hotter than 
was needful for common use, and at this extra degree 



260 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

of heat these lnen^were cast into the burning furnace 
bound with all their clothing. But the king beheld 
four men walking in the fire without hurt, and when 
he called them his three captives came out without 
hurt on either person or clothing. Never was there 
any person so distinguished as these three that had 
been faithful even in the midst of opposing powers. 
What revelation was made by this transaction to that 
heathen people, and no less to all people to whom it 
has come since, or ever will come. 

In the fourth chapter the same king dreams again 
and sees a great tree and it was cut down, but was to 
live again (verse 17) u to the intent that the living 
may know that the most high ruleth in the kingdoms 
of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and sit- 
teth up over it the basest of men. ,; But Daniel 
must show the interpretation for the others could not. 
Daniel told the king that he should be driven from 
men, and dwell with the beasts, and eat of their food 
and be wet with the dew of heaven for seven years, all 
of which was done. But the king did again resume 
his throne after all this was fulfilled. 

The fifth chapter treats of a successor, Belshazzar, 
and he makes a feast in his pride and wickedness, and 
the most wicked act of the feast was to bring the 
sacred vessels of the Lord's temple and defile them. 

While this wicked act was being done there ap- 
peared the fingers of a man's hand, and wrote on the 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 261 

wall. The king saw the part of the hand that wrote 
and the writing, but could not read it, and was 
alarmed. But who could read and interpert the mys- 
terious writing? All the wise men tried, but all 
failed, but Daniel was found and read the writing and 
told the meaning to the king that morally he lacked 
weight and politically his kingdom was removed 
from him, all of which was fulfilled in that self-same 
night. The true God was again revealed to the 
heathen, and his servant Daniel was again signally 
distinguished. 

In the sixth chapter the king made Daniel ruler 
next to himself. But it displeased the natives to see 
the captive above them and they obtained a decree 
from the king that if any person would pray or ask 
petition of any being except the king, for thirty days 
that they should be cast into the den of lions. They 
did this because they had noticed Daniel's unwaver- 
ing fidelity to his God and hoped they could find him 
praying. They found him prompt to the hour. 
Daniel did, with windows open, kneel and pray 
three times a day as before. Then they brought the 
case before the king that Daniel had violated the 
king's decree, and they claimed that the penalty 
should be fulfilled, and Daniel was cast into the den 
of lions and was there one night. But in early 
morning the king was at the den, and called to Dan- 
iel and he answered, and the king commanded Daniel 



262 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

to,be taken out of the den, and that his accusers should 
be thrown into the den but the beasts devoured them. 

Now how vastly these narratives enrich revelation! 
They show how the Lord rewards the pure, and the 
holy, and how he delivers his faithful servant, and 
does honor them that in the singleness of their 
hearts do honor him. Another lesson that is typi- 
cally taught in these narratives is that the Christian's 
deliverance is sure. 

The first chapter shows how the providence is ex- 
ercised toward Christians who are determined to live 
pure in the midst of impurity. Revelation could not 
be perfect without it. In the case of the first dream 
the king commanded an impossibility in the light of 
human power and wisdom. When these circum- 
stances surround the Christian, which they often do 
essentially but not literally, this narrative proves that 
God is there and that the Christian was brought 
there on purpose to meet and overcome that difficulty 
and overcome it in the name of the Lord. In these 
revelations are seen philosophy, cause and effect, and 
the revelation is to all people, believer and unbeliever, 
Christian or infidel. 

In the third chapter touching the deliverance from 
the fire of the furnace, how many millions of Chris- 
tians when in the furnace of tribulation or affliction 
have seen their promise of help in that very narrative, 
and have received deliverance from the same source. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 263 

The fourth chapter shows us the same result of 
becoming proud and self-exalted. Who can estimate 
the value of that narrative? 

The fifth chapter has more in it than is visible, for 
in it we see that when one becomes proud, and so re- 
gardless and impudently wicked that he will desecrate 
and defile the sacred vessels of the Lord's temple, 
that he is ripe for perdition any hour. But what is 
meant by these vessels that were the object of the 
Lord's care, and that so soon called down his judg- 
ment on Belshazzar who had dared to desecrate them? 
Those vessels of the Lord's temple were the type of 
the Lord's people. Each vessel was the type of one 
person. Every sane minded person has the agency 
over one of these precious vessels, that is himself, for 
the intellect and the human heart, the seat of affec- 
tion, are more precious material than the gold of 
which those vessels of the temple were made, as well 
as the conscience and the will and the entire physical 
structure. Whoever will defile and willingly desecrate 
the spiritual vessel is near the road to perdition. 

The lesson of the sixth chapter, Daniel among the 
lions, was to reveal the Lord as one every where pre- 
sent to help whenever needful. How many millions 
of Christians have been passively thrown among the 
fierce and powerful enemy that would devour them if 
they could, but have been as signally brought from 
among them without hurt as Daniel was. How could 



264 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

any of the book of Daniel be spared? The prophecy 
of Daniel contains much more that is very worthy 
of notice, and enters most fully into the harmonious 
and vast design of the whole scripture. 

The spiritual kingdom of Christ is here brought to 
view, and the interpretation given and published. 

In chapter eight is another vision of another kind 
which was also interpreted and published. 

In the ninth chapter Daniel seeks mercy of the Lord 
by prayer and fasting, sackcloth and ashes, which is 
humiliation. He seeks mercy for his people confes- 
sing "our sins," not "your sins." He said, "We have 
sinned," not <fc the people have sinned, ,, but confessed 
the Lord was holy, just and good in all the afflictions 
of the Jews. From the sixteenth to the nineteenth 
verses Daniel prays for the pardon of his people, and 
while he was thus in prayer the man Gabriel was 
caused to fly swiftly and touch him. Here Daniel's 
importance was again brought to view, and he was 
informed when that vast work, Daniel ix:24, should 
be accomplished. 

The tenth, eleventh and twelfth chapters of Daniel 
show other revelations made to him running until the 
close of time, or till the end be. 

Hosea, Joel, Amos and Micah, all four prophesied 
near the time that Isaiah did, shortly before Israel 
was removed from being a people, and takeh into 
Assyrian captivity, or it seems more like hopeless ex- 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 265 

ile, with their inheritance and their nationality lost 
because of their sinful course in life. These prophets 
all except Joel reproved both Israel and Judah for 
their sins and admonished them from the Lord that 
if they would forsake their sinful ways and return to 
the Lord he would receive and be merciful to them. 
But they disbelieved them, and abused and perscuted 
them, but they found the ruin of which they had 
been warned did come upon them. This is a type of 
those that sin carelessly or willfully after receiving 
the knowledge of the truth, or of the backslider from 
a sanctified life. For the Israelites inherited a land 
that was the type of heaven, as respects the Lord's 
favor and protection and of victory over all that op- 
pose them and of enjoyment. But with all their 
light and their favors from the Lord they made and 
worshiped idols and denied their true God. For this 
they were cast away. The lesson that as a type it 
teaches to Christians is that there is not only a possi- 
bility, but there is danger of falling into sin and be- 
ing lost, even from the sanctified life. 

Another feature of most of these prophets is that 
passages are found in them that plainly bring the 
atonement to view, and the church under Christ in 
some of its characteristics or distinguishing features^ 
showing the atonement to be a prominent feature of 
almost every department of scripture, as surely it 
should be. Joel speaks of the pouring out of the 



266 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

spirit so plainly that the language cannot be mistak- 
en although uttered more than seven hundred years 
before it occured. Jeremiah and Ezekiel prophesied 
shortly before, but some part of their prophecies 
were fulfilled after Judah was carried captive to 
Babylon. 

Habakkuk and Yephaniah were near the same time. 
By these prophets the Lord plead with Judah to re- 
form their ways, to quit their idolatry and return to 
their Lord, and told them the consequence of disobe- 
dience, which would be the sacrifice of their land. 
Their city and temple and all that they loved would 
be given into the hands of their enemies, the heathen. 
But like Israel they would not barken, but persecuted 
the Lord's messengers until their cause was hopeless 
and the Lord gave them into the hands of the king of 
Babylon. Now here is the backslider from the sanc- 
tified life, but who repents before the Lord, and con- 
fesses his sins to the Lord (not to man only as the 
sins were against men) but seeks pardon of the Lord, 
like Judah when their repentance moved the Lord's 
pity for them to reinstate them. When Judah was 
restored to their own land it teaches that Christians 
may be restored in a very similar manner, when 
they repent and seek with all the heart and all its 
depths. The building of the temple and the wall is 
to the Christian the revival of practice and doctrine 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 267 

of the Christian life, or if considered collectively it 
means revival in the church. 

The prophecy of Jonah was likely the earliest of 
the smaller prophets. There have been those who 
boast of their knowledge of philosophy, but question 
them but a little beyond their sight, and their cause 
and effect will be a perfect failure, and they cannot 
believe Jonah for want of philosophy. But when 
God is demonstrated in nature without the Bible then 
there is no impossibility, and when that God saw it 
was a stern necessity to make such a revelation of 
himself as is made in and by the narrative of Jonah, 
then where is the lack of philosophy? 0, shame! 
It is said his words shall not pass away, but why not? 

The Lord brought this little planet and the human 
race into existence to make a revelation of himself by 
which all his subjects may know him in all the end- 
less future, and also to reveal and conquer all his 
enemies. And now what if the great Supreme was 
willing to reveal himself up to the full extent that 
the narrative reveals him, that all his subjects in all 
the endless future might read and know who and 
what he is in these respects, the wisdom and goodness 
in ruling, but the certainty of being obeyed? Now 
whether these remarks are the best solution of Jonah 
or not it is plainly philosophical and scriptural, and 
if any one cannot improve it let him not dispute it. 
The Bible could not be complete without it. 



268 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

OBADIAH AND HAGGAI. 

Obadiah treats of the destruction of Edom, which 
prophecy has long since been fulfilled. 

Nahum treats of the destruction of Nineveh ful- 
filled long ago. 

Haggai contains two chapters, and their importance 
cannot be too highly estimated. It shows us what 
attention the Lord's work claims at the hands of the 
church. No personal interest should be thought of 
when the special work of the Lord demands the time 
of his people, their interest or their heart; and herein 
we see why prosperity does not crown our labors, and 
why the Lord reproves us in the failure cf our crops, 
our wages and our comforts. The promises to the 
Jews of prosperity in the performance of their work 
and duties are a type and a promise to the true spirit- 
ual servant of Christ when the Lord sends him to 
build up his spiritual house, or its defenses (true Bi- 
ble doctrine.) If such a one find opposition, Haggai 
is a plain teacher to him, showing the road to success. 
These two chapters of Haggai could not be spared 
from the Bible. 

Zachariah, fourteen chapters, at the same time 
with Haggai, also treats of building the temple or 
house of the Lord at Jerusalem. But the most con- 
spicuous features of Zachariah are the atonement and 
the atoner, and the spiritual church under them. 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 269 

How philosophical is this entire department of scrip- 
ture, the prophecy of Zachariah! It shows the Lord's 
servants at work in opposition to this world, for the 
accomplishment of an object greater than the tem- 
peral interests of all the earth, and they finish the 
work, 

Malachi, the latest of the prophets prophesied after 
the Jews returned from Babylon to inherit their land 
and nation. This prophecy shows how priests and 
people again descended into sin, but the chief item 
in it is the messenger of the covenant, the refiner, the 
Christ. 

XEW TESTAMENT. 

Having very briefly considered the thirty-nine 
books of the Old Testament, in the light of the only 
perfect system of philosophy in nature, I demand to 
know where is the lack of either harmony or philos- 
ophy in these books? And where outside of them 
can clear reason be found for anything we see that 
will not come to a question which cannot find a phil- 
osophical answer? 

As the atonement is evidently the leading theme 
of the Old Testament, and the great important center 
of all the thoughts the Old Testament contains, and 
is the condition of all creature existence, then if all 
the prophecies concerning the atonement is fulfilled 
in the person of some one, is it not proven that such 



270 : SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

person was the Messiah if revelation be in perfect 
harmony with reason, and reason cannot be found 
apart from revelation then the slander that says the 
scriptures cannot be sustained by reason would be 
removed from the Bible and its author? The New 
Testament shows the fulfillment of the Old Testa- 
ment and there is no book sustained bv so much testi- 
mony and so many authors as the new Testament. 

Take the four gospels which instruct us concerning 
the physical origin of Christ, its author. He was the 
son of a woman but not of a man. He was the son 
of God as really as any man is the son of some man. 
The law consecrated men to the office of priest at the 
age of thirty years, but when, where and how did our 
Lord fulfill this law of consecration that he might 
lawfully act in the temple? We are not left without 
certainty on this subject, for Mathew xxi:25, and 
Mark xi:30 and Luke xx:4, all record the answer to 
that question as to where he received authority to 
act in the temple, and who gave him such authority. 

All three, Matthew, Mark and Luke, tell us that 
He referred them to the baptism of John for all the 
answer He gave them. The law to consecrate a 
priest required to wash him with water, Exodus 
xxiv:4, at the door of the tabernacle of ,the congre- 
gation; also Leviticus viii:6, with water, at the door, 
verse 3. 

But our Lord received His washing by His baptism, 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 271 

at the door, or the opening act of His endless rule or 
reign, which commenced by His baptism, filling the 
law of consceration. This was the door of Christ's 
authority, or His public action. But the anointing 
oil and the blood of the altar were sprinkled on them 
that were consecrated, and on all their garments. 
That was the type of, and was fulfilled when the 
spirit, like a dove, did light on Jesus after He was 
baptised, or washed with water, at the door or 
threshold of His visible authority. Then He was 
lawfully a priest, having fulfilled the letter of the 
law. After this He was tempted of the devil in the 
wilderness for forty days, that He might succor 
those who are tempted. After He returned, the evi- 
dences of His divine character were brighter and 
plainer than before. A person who can cleanse the 
leprosy by his word is divine. The very use of 
leprosy is to illustrate sin. The poison spreads irre- 
sistably and hopelessly, but this man of Nazareth 
said, l< Be thou clean; and the leprosy was cleansed." 
The blind of this world cannot be cured by human 
skill, but Jesus, by the word of His power, caused 
the blind to see. This is the only figure of spiritual 
blindness, and it is the only true figure of spiritual 
healing, and is an infallible proof of divine power. 
Furthermore, the deaf and dumb, physically, are the 
only figures of the spiritually deaf and dumb, and 
there was no remedy in human power to relieve from 



272 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

their misfortune. But the author of the New Tes- 
tament did cause the deaf to hear and the dumb to 
talk. Is it not God that can do this? Another evi- 
dence of His divinity or Godhead is that He raised 
the dead to life physically, and when He said u Thy 
sins be forgiven thee, 1 ' that was a positive pledge to 
the whole earth that He could and would raise the 
spiritually dead to life. God alone can give life to 
the dead. Another indubitable testimony of His 
Messiahship was that He cast out devils. This was 
done before the physical senses of spectators, inso- 
much that none seemed to have denied the fact. 
This also can be done by divine power only. Now, 
as the leprosy, deafness, blindness and deadness are 
the fruits of the enemy and fallen nature, and the 
very use of all these is to reveal to the world the true 
condition of the unrenewed nature of man, and as 
the physical is the only type of the spiritual, then 
the personage that has demonstrated His power so 
fully to subdue and to master and to conquer by His 
word, all of these, most undoubtedly, demonstrates 
Himself to be God. He healed a nobleman's son, 
passed unseen through the multitude, gave a miracu- 
lous draught of fishes, cured^ a demoniac, healed 
Peter's wife's mother, healed a paralytic, cured an 
impotent man, restored a withered hand, healed the 
centurion's servant, stilled the tempest, healed the 
woman of her twelve years' weakness, raised Jarious' 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 273 

daughter, gave miraculous power to the apostles, fed 
five thousand on nearly nothing, walked on the sea, 
obtained money from a fish, healed a woman of 
eighteen years' infirmity, cured the dropsy, withered 
the barren fig tree and healed the ear of Malchus. 
What more could be added to prove the Messiahship 
of the despised Nazarene, that those who trust him 
should not question the promises that He has made to 
His followers? These healings are all promises of 
spiritual healing. 

Another class of testimony is that His life and 
works, words and death so influenced the whole world 
that by universal consent the count of time is 
changed. For the first four thousand years of the 
world were counted from the life of the first man, 
but from the advent of this Man the numbering of 
years commenced again at one. 

Another class of evidence is that no person has 
ever lived on this earth whose life has borne any 
equal comparison to His in regard to the number 
of persons that have acknowledged and admired, and 
published His history. No name has been so gener- 
ally and so reliably published as that of the Man of 
Calvary. All the New Testament writers were eye 
and ear witnesses. There is a book written by Prof. 
C. E. Stowe entitled, "Origin and History of the 
Books of the Bible. 1 ' In that work we find a great 
number of authors other than the New Testament 
15 



274 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

writers, who bear testimony to the person of Jesus 
Christ and His works as written in the New Testa- 
ment. Beginning with those of the first century he 
gives Barnabas, Clement, Josephus, Papias, and 
Ignatius, five beside the sacred writers in the first 
century of the Christian era. In the second century 
there were many more. Mr. Stowe names twenty- 
eight authors who wrote in the second century, all 
bearing witness to the New Testament and to its 
great Author. Of those iu the third century he 
gives the names of fifteen who wrote in support of 
the truth of the New Testament and its Author. 
And in the fourth century there are twenty-five 
others who are named as writers that bear witness 
to the New Testament truths. 

In the fifth century the names of five more occur 
who bear testimony to the great light of the world. 

Of those in the sixth century he gives the names 
of four more. Here is a succession of authors from 
the eye and ear witnesses of Christ, the author of the 
New Testament and his works to the present day. 
These are the watchmen on Zion's walls that see eye 
to eye. 

The first stand until they see others come and talk 
with them, and thev see and talk with others their 
successors, and so it is handed from hand to hand 
from the great author of the scripture to the present 
day. Now if any one will not believe in the atone- 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 275 

ment, why will he not? Surely not for want of the 
clearest testimony. 

Another positive evidence of his Messiahship was 
that his teaching was pure and perfect and very plain 
and very offensive to the authorities, altogether un- 
like human nature, for the plain truth that must he 
told and shown condemned the authorties and caused 
them to seek his life, and at the right time he suffer- 
ed them to take his life, for, for that cause came he 
to that hour. 

The standard of truth and propriety that our Lord 
taught was, u Be ye perfect, even as your father 
which is in heaven is perfect." The same to the 
letter that is taught in the types, and there is no 
lower standard of acceptable life taught in the Bible 
anywhere. 

When the time drew near that he should be offered 
he told his followers that such a thing should befall 
him, but when the reality came to pass his disciples 
would have defended him with the sword. But he 
said, "Put up your sword, for if I ask my father he 
would send me more than twelve legions of angels." 
But how then should the scriptures be fulfilled that 
thus it must be? And he said, u The cup that my 
father gave me, shall I not drink it?". These expres- 
sions show that these things were appointed to him 
before the world was. 

In the face of this testimony, sufficient to prove 



276 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

the atonement and the character of the person that 
made it, if anything can be proven and settled by 
history, then the atonement and the atoner are settled 
beyond a doubt. 

The ground taken in these pages is to the effect 
that infinite wisdom created and upholds this earth 
and its inhabitants for some useful end or design 
which is not so dark but that the human mind can 
search it out, and see in the light of reason that this 
planet is the theater of war, and the human race are 
the soldiers. It was the essential object of their ex- 
istence. 

By the wars of the world we see that discipline is a 
necessity in war, and surely it is plain that from the 
calling of Abraham until the ministry of Christ, the 
business of the world was to make and record disci- 
pline, and to instruct the spiritual army in all its 
special points of power. 

This army must be instructed that carnal weapons 
whose success is but flattering and short at best, 
could not succeed in the hands of the spiritnal 
soldier, but that spiritual weapons wisely handled are 
reliable and no others, that right must conquer 
wrong, and love conquer malice, and good conquer 
evil, and prayers be given for curses. These are the 
weapons of spiritual warfare, and from the time that 
our Lord commenced his ministry, after his initiation 
to the priesthood at Jordan, the hand to hand fight 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 277 

commenced. The great captain of the spiritual army 
was the first victim, but was he conquered? Verily 
no, but the act of crucifying him was a necessity 
that he might by that appointed means become the 
mighty conquerer of the great enemy of the universe. 
But he calls men and women to the vastly high rela- 
tion of being soldiers with him, and millions of them 
have conquered like their Master in the death of a 
martvr. 

4/ 

When the Lord stood a criminal and his friend 
with his sword smote off the ear of one of his enemies 
he bid Peter put up the carnal weapon, for he had 
help enough for the asking for it, "but how then 
should the scripture be fulfilled that thus it must be? v 
And w 7 ith his dying breath he prayed, "Father, for- 
give them, they know not what they do." 0, man 
or woman, how can you aspire so high in any other 
way, as to join the cause of right under the leader- 
ship of our Lord, and fight with him as he commands? 
If he sees good to give or honor us with the martyr's 
death let it be the highest exultation. 

The four gospels furnish the clearest and fullest 
account of the fulfillment of most of the prophecies, 
and most of the types of the Old Testament, and fur- 
nish the most philosophical and clear testimony to 
the truth of the whole scripture, showing it all to be 
one book having but one object in view. Thus is 
made a grand and perfect whole of revelation show- 



278 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

ing its design and its perfection, and that it is worthy 
of its author, and that it is perfectly suitable in every 
particular for the grand and endless purpose for 
which it was designed. 

The four Gospels show the deception and depravity 
of the human heart to its fullest extent, more than 
anything else in nature could. When the Jews 
looked for a Savior He came and proved himself to 
be the right one. But they must dictate to him 
what he must say and what He must do and how 
He must live; and when He would tell them the 
truth it stirred their malice, and they sought His 
life, and when the heathen judge or governor said, 
k< Take ye Him and crucify Him, for I find no fault 
in Him," they did crucify Him. Nature knows no 
such thing as that except in that one case. 

In the Gospels we are told by the highest authority 
that there will be a general judgment, when perfect 
justice will be meted out to all, and that the armies 
of the right, and also of the wrong, will be put on 
exhibition, which exhibition will be eternal. In the 
self same speech He tells us that heaven and earth 
shall pass away, but His words shall not pass away. 
Now where is the difficulty in the Scripture concern- 
ing justice or mercy or infinite goodness in any way 
of considering it? Here are the warning words of 
the infinite Lord forever held on exhibition, which 
were revealed to the world while it was in its proba- 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 279 

tion. But it mav be said those lost ones did not all 
of them ever see or hear those words of warning that 
were spoken by the divine authority personally. No, 
they did not; even a very great majority of the 
world never read or heard them read. But every 
responsible agent from first to last has had, or will 
have light equal to this in all respects essential to 
justice, and will be judged according to the light they 
have. But this revelation was made so plain and 
indisputable, and by the Judge in person, that no one 
in Christendom can fail to understand it, and all such 
must be affected by it. But it will bear endless testi- 
mony that the word of the Almighty itself would 
not be harkened to by those who chose depravity and 
deception. And that will prove to the heathen who 
are lost that the blessing of revelation to those who 
chose depravity would but make their condemnation 
the more terrible. Thus from all the earth, glory, 
honor, righteousness, security and indemnity will 
gather around the throne everlastingly. 

The acts of the apostles occupy a very fitting place 
in making revelation perfect. Like all other Scrip- 
tures, their strength and value do not consist in 
knowing the secretary that their great Author 
employed to write them; but the important necessity 
for them, and the fitness they have to meet that 
necessity, are all sufficient proof of their divine 
authenticity. They are written as man does not 



280 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

write (see the apochryphal acts), and their teachings 
are not as man teaches. The Acts make perfect the 
points of revelation that they were designed to make, 
and they are not made perfect in any other way, or 
by any other writing. This department of scripture 
shows the fulfillment of the promised out pouring of 
the spirit of the Lord, or the Holy Grhost that was 
promised in many passages, and expressed in various 
ways and words. 

Many of the types, as all the washings with water 
of any thing or typical cleansing with water of any- 
thing and everything that was so cleansed, all pointed 
to the water of life, which was the pure, cleansing 
instructing, life giving spirit of the Lord that should 
be poured out upon the world. 

This was fulfilled in its fullest possible sense in the 
great Pentecostal outpouring. Here we are informed 
that the promise was fulfilled to the church, her pri- 
vileges vastly extended and her purity established. 
Men were enabled to be fearless of the powers and 
authorities of the world, and to speak the boldest 
truths, and that to the highest authorities of the 
world as readily as to the low or powerless. They 
were willing to die for the truth if need be, or be put 
in prison, or be beaten with stripes, or have their 
goods taken from them. 

All worldly things were held ready to be sacrificed 
for Christ and his cause. Worldly pursuits made no 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 281 

part of the object of their lives, but the glory of the 
Father, Son and Holy Ghost was their entire object r 
together with the salvation of the world. 

The most exalted death that men could die was to 
be martyred for Christ's and for conscience's sake T 
like the martyr Stephen was, and almost all of the 
apostles, and a vast number of faithful ones since 
then. Another thing taught in the Acts is the con- 
stant warfare that goes on between right and wrong. 
The armies of the wrong with their carnal weapons 
strive to annihilate the true soldiers of the right. 
They do that yet and always will so far as they have 
power. # The armies of the right with their spiritual 
weapons return good for evil, kindness for malice, 
right for wrong and with these they conquer the 
wrong. They always have conquered when they took 
the perfect weapon and used it perfectly and they 
always will. These spiritual weapons are the only 
instrumentalities by which the wrong can be con- 
quered. 

Another thing seen in the Acts is that if men 
think the price to high that secures the Christian's 
reward, they are at perfect liberty to serve the world, 
and stand with the opposite army for its reward, and 
they shall have it. 

How willingly the soldiers of the cross will suffer 
anything or all things for their Master's sake, the 
loss of their goods, the hope of wealth or worldly 



282 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

honor, and meet their death by fire, by the cross, or 
be devoured by wild beasts, or be beheaded, or any 
other death that malice could invent, but they are 
victors in their death through Him that stands by 
them. 

Another thing seen in the Acts is the Lord's care 
and protection over his faithful ones, as seen in the 
conversion of Saul of Tarsus (Paul, the apostle) for 
he was conscientious, and the Lord showed him that 
it was his privilege to suffer for the Lord, and to seek 
a crown that lay beyond in which many stars might 
glitter. 

But his condition was to despise the touch of 
wealth, or worldly honor that would be as a cloud 
over his present usefulness or future prospects, or 
stain his conscience. We see also in the Acts that 
Christians may have plans, and with an honest de- 
sign to serve the Lord in their plans may be like 
Paul who desired to go to Rome to preach the gospel, 
but desired a prosperous journey. But he could earn 
a great deal more wages for the Lord by going a 
perilous journey, and a perilous journiey he had. Oh, 
how the true heart may be encouraged under the 
darkest clouds! 

Another item is, Paul shows Christians how to 
finish their pilgrimage, for when he was condemned 
to die a martyr of the cross, he said he had fought 
a good fight, he had kept the faith, and he had fin- 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 283 

ished his course, and he said his crown was laid up 
for him, that would be given to him at that day. 

The twelve epistles of Paul, three of John, two of 
Peter, one each of James and Jude, in all twenty, 
and the Revelation are all in perfect harmony with 
all the rest of the Scripture. The New and the Old 
Testaments have each for its object the same thing, 
and both teach that the Lord had a special use for 
the world, and that it is accomplishing the very de- 
sign for which it was created; not that any creature 
was put under any obligation to sin, for the promises 
are alike to all and the penalties are alike to all, 
according to their work. Thus all the world have 
served and ever will serve, as they themselves choose. 
Those that choose delusion, the Lord chooses what 
that delusion shall be, and overrules it; but those 
that choose truth, the Lord leads into the ways of 
truth. A perfect heart and holy life may hope in 
the merits of Christ for Salvation, but the careless 
and indifferent need not. whether in church or out 
of it. 

The book of Revelation is more obscure in its 
meaning, but is not out of harmony with any other 
Scripture. It shows most clearly that human beings 
were not created for their own pleasure ; nor did they 
incidently fall, that love and mercy might be shown 
in their redemption; but for reasons of stern and 
terrible necessity does this world of man exist. The 



284 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

world is filling up to the measure of its design, and 
there is no accident with the Lord. All men are ren- 
dering Him a service, and will everlastingly. The 
chamDion infidel who thinks he annihilates the Lord's 
claim to the human race, even such a man is render- 
ing the Lord a valuable service, for He will make 
even the wrath of man to praise Him, and will re- 
strain all actions and works of man that would not 
contribute to His praise in all His attributes. 

The Darwins, Tyndalls, Huxleys, Ingersolls and 
who ever advocates their principles, all claim that 
reason is their all conquering weapon. Some of 
them say science, but if science does not mean reason, 
then it is a word without sense. They say the scrip- 
ture cannot be maintaiued on the ground of clear 
logical reason, and on this ground they condemn the 
scripture and attempt to bring forward something 
for a substitute, but they make a shameful failure. 
But in the light of these few pages the most perfect 
reason, harmony and consistency are seen in the 
entire scripture, as well as the first and clearest prin- 
ciples of philosophy. Its very root is found in the 
Bible. 

If clear reason is seen for everything in the Bible 
it is clear proof that it cannot be found anywhere 
else, and herein it is shown that Christianitv can 
wrest the weapon from the hand of infidelity on his, 
the infidel's, own platform and utterly annihilate the 



AND LOGIC OF THE SCRIPTURES. 285 

last vestage of his argument on his own ground. Chris- 
tianity shows reason in a philosophical light that 
cannot be moved, but the best that infidelity can do 
is to hold up the eternity of matter, or the late 
grand, high discovery, that some law of evolution 
has produced all creatures life. Oh, shame! But 
when clear, logical reason is seen for everything, and 
also the most indispensible necessity for everything 
that the Bible tells us was done, that must settle all 
disputes against the Bible forever. 

So we close these thoughts. 

A word to the reader; this short treatise on the 
Bible was, and is, designed to answer the infidel argu- 
ment. The only argument they bring with any 
show of success is, that the Bible is without logic, 
reason, philosophy, harmony, or consistency. But if 
a theorv is advanced that does show all these in the 
Bible, even if it would not be supported by the letter 
of the Bible, would it not answer their argument, 
and prove their argument to be erroneous? And 
does not this treatise prove that much? But if the 
theory cannot be condemned by the Bible, nor by 
anything in nature, truth, reasou, or logic, then it 
ought not to be considered erroneous. 

Does not this little book come up to such a demand 
as that? But if such theory is supported by Revela- 
tion, and by the book of nature, and by truth, rea- 
son, and philosophy, then is not a perfect answer to 



286 SOLUTION OF BIBLE PROBLEMS 

the infidel argument. And is not these pages sup- 
ported by both nature and revelation? And does it 
not rescue the Bible and its author from the basest 
slander that ever was thrust at any being in the 
universe? Namely, the God of the Bible gave to 
man a revelation, but could not, did not, make it 
comprehensible to his capacity, or the judgment with 
which the Lord had endowed him. And is not the 
only weapon wrested from infidelity and turned 
against itself, as a system ? And does it not annihi- 
late the infidel argument perfectly with their own 
weapon on their own ground? If so, my task is 
done. 



Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process. 
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide 
Treatment Date: May 2005 

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